Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Friday met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Antalya diplomacy forum.

The meeting was also attended by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Turkish Cypriot ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu.

Neither Erhurman’s office, nor Aliyev’s office, made further comment about the meeting.

Erhurman had met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday, with the Turkish presidential communications directorate saying that in that meeting Erdogan had said “the military units sent to the island from some European countries under the pretext of the war in Iran need to not be permanent”.

After Cyprus was hit by an Iranian-made drone last month, Greece, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom all deployed naval or aerial assets to the island and its vicinity.

While Erhurman was joined at Thursday’s meeting by his undersecretary Mehmet Dana and his chief of staff Mustafa Erguven, Erdogan was joined by Turkey’s National intelligence organisation (Mit) chief Ibrahim Kalin.

Erdogan’s comments regarding the buildup of foreign military assets in and around Cyprus echo those made by Erhurman last month, who told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency that “I do not think that the military assets which have come here will be permanent, and I am saying very clearly that they should not be”.

“Of course, their arrivals will be reported in the foreign press, and when that is reported, no matter what you say, the perception that this region is not a safe region will be implanted into people’s minds,” he said.

He added that with that array of military assets arriving in Cyprus, “you actually do not feel secure”, before criticising the Republic of Cyprus’ decision to strengthen its ties with Israel in recent years.