Azerbaijan remains committed to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by peaceful means, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with TASS.
The Azeri leader also underscored that Baku remains committed to its obligations assumed in contacts with its partners. "We have always relied on international law and our commitment to the resolution of the conflict by peaceful means both from the very beginning and in the negotiations on the conflict settlement. We sought to abide by the obligations that Azerbaijan assumed after talks in Moscow," Aliyev stressed. "Unfortunately, Armenia blatantly violated the ceasefire. In less than 24 hours, the sleeping city of Ganja was attacked."
According to the Azeri leader, the strike was deliberately aimed at residential quarters and there were many dead and wounded after the first attack.
"In other words, Armenia brazenly violated the ceasefire, disrespecting mediators and its obligations assumed following the talks in Moscow," Aliyev said. "After the ceasefire conditions were agreed to exchange captives and dead bodies, Armenia violated the truce on the battlefield as well. However, they thought that it wasn’t enough, and they attacked Ganja. By the way, they did it again two days ago at night. This is an ignoble crime, this is international terrorism. And the fact that the international community unanimously condemned this bloody crime is telling that they won’t get away with it this easily."
"It is not our fault that the situation is still in a ‘hot phase’. I have repeatedly said that Azerbaijan is committed to settlement principles which were produced by the longstanding negotiating process. We are ready to stop hostilities as early as tomorrow if Armenia behaves constructively in negotiations. However, the statements that we hear from Yerevan run completely counter to the basic principles ironed out by the OSCE Minsk Group," Aliyev said, when asked if he sees a way to return to the ceasefire negotiated in Moscow or if it is dead.
At the same time, he pinned the responsibility for the disruption of talks on Armenia. "The Armenian leadership recently delivered very dangerous statements, practically rejecting the basic principles. All activities of the Armenian leadership were aimed at disrupting the negotiating process. I already mentioned their numerous statements, provocations and attacks on the peaceful population of Azerbaijan. Therefore, if the Armenian side finally realizes that the way of military provocations will lead them to a catastrophe, we are ready to again suspend military action and solve the issue at the negotiating table," Ilham Aliyev noted.
Baku "is ready for any contacts," the leader assured. "And in this case, I have not received such an invitation, so this question is not for me. Many times personally President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev before him conducted trilateral meetings between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan," he said. "However, after power shifted in Armenia to a Soros-like figure, such contacts have stopped," Aliyev explained.
He said that Russia had always played an important role in the conflict settlement. "There are objective reasons for this - both historical and geographical ones." Another reason is "that for decades, Russia has been active in our region, and the level of interaction is high. That is why, we are ready for any contacts," the head of state stressed.
He reiterated that when an offer came to organize a meeting of the foreign ministers, the Azerbaijani side agreed right away. "This also shows our position, because at that time the Azerbaijani army had already successfully liberated some strategic territories. It had been already more than ten days into the conflict, and it was practically clear to everyone who was capable of what. It was not very difficult to imagine the further course of combat operations. However, in spite of this, we did not stall for time, nor did we refuse. We said: ‘Yes, we are ready’," President Ilham Aliyev emphasized.
"We are always ready to meet in Moscow or any other place in order to put an end to the standoff and find ways towards a settlement," Aliyev said, when asked whether he was ready to go to Moscow himself to meet with his counterpart through Russia’s mediation.
The Armenian armed forces committed a large-scale provocation, subjecting the positions of the Azerbaijani army to intensive shelling from large-caliber weapons, mortars, and artillery installations of various calibers in the front-line zone on Sept. 27 at 05:00 (Msk). The command of the Azerbaijani Army decided to launch a counter-offensive operation of Azerbaijani troops along the entire front to suppress the combat activity of the Armenian armed forces and ensure the safety of the civilian population. To date, Fizuli and Jabrayil districts, including the cities of Jabrayil and Fizuli, the city of Hadrut and a number of villages in the Khojavend region, the villages of Sugovushan and Talish in the Terter region, as well as the strategically important Murovdag mountain were liberated.
