Ilham Aliyev at CIS session: Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is thing of the past

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev summed up the Karabakh war processes, saying that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a thing of the past.

Speaking at the session of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) held in the format of a video conference, he noted that Azerbaijan defeated the occupying country, which occupied significant internationally recognized Azerbaijani territories for many years, and as a result, more than 80% of the Armenian Armed Forces was destroyed.

"For Azerbaijan, it was a Patriotic, liberation war, for Armenia it was an invasion, occupation war," he stressed.

The head of state recalled that in the early 90s of the last century, Armenia occupied about 20% of the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven other regions, both in Nagorno-Karabakh and beyond, and in Armenia, ethnic cleansing was carried out against the Azerbaijani population. "As a result, 1 million out of 8 million of the then population of Azerbaijan ended up in the position of migrants. The occupied territories of Azerbaijan were completely destroyed, ethnic cleansing was carried out against the Azerbaijani population," he stressed.

Aliyev has described the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh as "very successful." "It is being conducted very successfully, in constant touch with the relevant organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan," he said.

The Azerbaijani leader stressed that only one incident had been recorded since the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders signed a joint statement on a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh almost a month and a half ago. According to Azerbaijan, that incident was provoked by "groups of so-called militias uncontrolled by the Armenian authorities." "The incident was settled within one day. The ceasefire is being observed, and will become stronger every day," Aliyev said.