Azerbaijan itself resolved the conflict with Armenia by restoring its territorial integrity, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the opening of the VIII Global Baku Forum.
“Azerbaijan resolved the conflict itself. Azerbaijan itself implemented the UN Security Council resolutions adopted in 1993 which demanded the immediate unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, these resolutions remained on paper for 27 years and probably would have remained on paper for another 27 years if Azerbaijan did not itself restore its territorial integrity,” he said.
He noted that Armenia tried to maintain the status quo, protracting the negotiations all these years.
“Last couple of years Armenian leadership already openly was announcing that they are not going to give any centimeter of occupied territories back. There is enough proof of that. Only it’s enough to mention the statement of the current Armenian prime minister which he made on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan two years ago that Karabakh is Armenia and period. So that was actually the end of negotiations.”
President Ilham Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan is currently in a post-conflict period.
“Now we are in a post-conflict situation where we made several proposals to Armenian to start working on a peace agreement. Unfortunately, this proposal is still not answered. At the same time, we made a proposal to start working on delimitation and demarcation of our state borders with the recognition of territorial integrity of both countries and this proposal also is not addressed,” Ilham Aliyev added.
“Another issue which I would like to raise today is the issue which I was raising at every Baku Global Forum since the first until the last – during all these previous seven fora – I raised the issue of conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Today I’d like to say that the conflict is resolved.”
“Azerbaijan resolved the conflict itself. Azerbaijan itself implemented the UN Security Council resolutions adopted in 1993 which demanded immediate unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, these resolutions remained on paper for 27 years and probably would have remained on paper for another 27 years if Azerbaijan did not itself restore its territorial integrity,” he said.
“On the night from 9 to 10th November, Armenia signed a capitulation act, and the war ended. And we kept our word, as soon as they gave us the timetable of the withdrawal from the remaining occupied territories, the war stopped. In four days’ time, the people of Azerbaijan will celebrate the first anniversary of our historic victory.”
“What we’ve seen on the liberated territories is total devastation. Not a single building is left. During the years of occupation, they demolished all historical monuments, 65 mosques out of 67, houses, public buildings, etc. So, this is actually proof of barbarism,” he added.
Report