The north’s ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu met Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly in New York late on Thursday.

According to the north’s ‘foreign ministry’, the pair discussed regional issues and relations between Azerbaijan and the north, while Ertugruloglu briefed Bayramov on the latest developments regarding the Cyprus problem.

The meeting is the latest episode in a series which has seen Azerbaijan dabble in bolstering its relations with both sides of Cyprus, with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar having most recently met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Antalya in April.

On that occasion, the official website of Azerbaijan’s presidency referred to Tatar as the “President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”, while Tatar thanked Aliyev for his “solidarity and support”.

The previous day, Aliyev had promised to ensure that the north will gain international recognition, saying that “we are only thinking about how we can help our brothers protect their state”, and that “they deserve this in terms of history and what they have done”.

Prior to that, Bayramov had met Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos in December last year, stressing after the meeting the “importance of continuing the dialogue” between the Republic of Cyprus and Azerbaijan.

That meeting was the second of its kind in the space of a month, with the pair having also met on the sidelines of November’s Cop29 summit in Baku.

President Nikos Christodoulides had said that meeting was “a meeting which, beyond symbolism, is of particular essential importance.”

The two meetings, as well as Christodoulides’ reception in Baku in November as the president of Cyprus, were seen to mark a shift in Azerbaijan’s stance on Cyprus, though that balance has since shifted in the opposite direction with Aliyev’s subsequent statements.

In keeping with this, Aliyev had said last year his country was making “diplomatic efforts” for the north to become an observer member of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS).

Aliyev’s and Azerbaijan’s stance on Cyprus had not escaped the attention of the Republic, with House president Annita Demetriou promising last year to “send a message” to Azerbaijan over the creation of an ‘inter-parliamentary’ group with the north’s legislature.