Ilham Aliyev in Berlin: we do not want war, we want to return our territories

Today, it is enough to look at the map of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone to understand who an aggressor is and who is a victim, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the head of the European bureau of 'Vestnik Kavkaza', Orhan Sattarov, reports.

Answering a question after the official part of the press conference, the President stressed that Azerbaijan's position is simple. "In the early 1990s, Armenia occupied eight Azerbaijani districts. Nagorno Karabakh historically belongs to Azerbaijan 30% of the population were ethnic Azeris – all of them were expelled. War crimes were committed, the Khojaly genocide. A large number of people have become refugees," he reminded.

The witnesses and victims of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are our contemporaries. "I am not talking about events that took place many decades ago – this happened before the eyes of the international community. The occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh was not enough for them, and they have also occupied seven regions of Azerbaijan, expelled our people from there, and destroyed our cultural monuments, mosques and cemeteries. They have been there for more than 20 years and ignore the efforts of international mediators to resolve the conflict," Ilham Aliyev stressed.

The settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict means a peaceful deoccupation of Azerbaijani territories. "We have repeatedly said that we offer Karabakh a broad autonomy. Armenia periodically organizes provocations in order to extend these endless negotiations. Their goal is to slow down the negotiation process," said Azerbaijani President drawing attention to the tactics of Yerevan.

"But this time, I think they were wrong about the consequences. As a result of the Azerbaijani army’s strike back, we were able to regain control over a number of the occupied territories. I think it is a lesson the Armenian government should learn: they must follow the international law. The illegal occupation of Azerbaijani territories is absolutely unacceptable, and Armenia should listen to the presidents of the US, France and Russia, who stress that the status quo is unacceptable. Once this is done, we will open the borders, restore the transport infrastructure and eliminate any chances for the issue to be resolved by military means," Aliyev said.

"I repeat once again, we want to resolve the conflict peacefully. In early April we were the first to stop fighting, because we did not want war, but I repeat, we want the conflict to be resolved, we want to return our territories," he concluded.

Speaking about Russia's role in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani President described Moscow's role in the Karabakh crisis as constructive.

Ilham Aliyev said that he considers Russia as a strategic partner. "Azerbaijan and Russia have also good relations in the fields of security, transport and trade," he pointed out.

"Russian arms supplies to Armenia don’t cause allergies in Azerbaijan, while Russian arms sales to Azerbaijan causes allergies in Armenia. But, unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan pays money for the acquisition of weapons. Azerbaijan buys weapons not only from Russia, but also from Turkey, Israel, Belarus and Iran. We should provide our armed forces with sophisticated weapons as a state that is suffering from occupation and located in complicated geopolitical configuration," Ilham Aliyev said.

"Russia is one of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, which is responsible for resolving the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. We believe that Russia is playing a very positive role and we hope that  Russia, France and the United States, using its full potential, will persuade Armenia to withdraw its forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories," the president of Azerbaijan concluded.

"We will use our contacts to support the Russian government, as well as the American and the French ones — co-chairs of the Minsk group — in solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Merkel said.