Top Turkish, Azerbaijani diplomats talk pirate attack

Turkey and Azerbaijan’s top diplomats spoke on the phone Wednesday, in a conversation focused on last weekend’s pirate attack in which 15 Turkish sailors were kidnapped and one Azerbaijani sailor was killed.

Speaking to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov expressed thanks for Turkey bringing home the body of the sailor, slain in the Gulf of Guinea attack last Saturday.

The two also addressed recent developments in the region during their conversation, according to diplomatic sources who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The body of the slain sailor, Farman Ismayilov, retrieved when the ship he had served on docked in nearby Gabon following the attack, was airlifted from Gabon's capital Libreville to Istanbul, and then to the Azerbaijani capital Baku by Turkish Airlines.

In the pirate attack on Saturday, 15 of the cargo ship’s 19 crew members were also abducted, while three docked with the ship in Gabon.

Cavusoglu stressed Monday that Turkey is doing everything it can to get back the 15 kidnapped sailors, though the pirates have yet to make contact with Turkish officials.