President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was interviewed by Euronews TV channel during the Global Media Forum in Shusha in July 21-23. The interview was broadcast on Euronews yesterday.
He noted that the declaration signed on the 10th November 2020, was not actually providing sustainable peace: it wasn't a peace treaty, it was a declaration, de facto, that was a capitulation act by Armenia. So Azerbaijan started to put forward some initiatives in order to find the final solution to conflicts with Armenia.
"We made it public and announced that we need to sign a peace agreement. And then again, it was vague. So then, we elaborated the principles for peace agreement, which are very well-known principles of international law like mutual recognition of territorial integrity, sovereignty, international borders, delimitation of borders, non-use of force or threat of force. We put that proposal on the table. So, we are the country, which suffered 30 years of occupation, and restored justice by force, we were the authors of a new peace process. I would not say it is going very smoothly, but we are still optimistic, because we are now engaged in very active negotiations on the level of foreign ministers of both countries," Ilham Aliyev stressed.
The head of state noted that the peace talks were held by the foreign ministers, and their meetings in Brussels were organized by the President of European Counci. These talks actually allow touch upon very sensitive issues - the future parameters of the boundaries, the situation with communications.
"Armenia has obligation, which is signed as a result of the Second Karabakh War to allow us access to our exclave Nakhchivan. But still, it is not happening. So, main concentration on paragraphs of peace treaty is made by the ministers. Our meetings just create, I think, a good atmosphere. But if we see a constructive approach from Armenian side, and most important if they totally put down all their aspirations to contest our territorial integrity then we can find the peace solution very soon, maybe even by the end of the year," Ilham Aliyev said.
The Azerbaijani leader stressed that whichever actor can produce initiatives that will lead to peace agreement, Azerbaijan will support it, recalling that in addition to Brussels, the foreign ministers also held talks in Washington and Russia.
"If there'll be some other location, of course, we will agree. It's important for us to come to an agreement and to have a result. Of course, we understand the certain geopolitical rivalries, some attempts of some players to be more active. We can only appreciate if there's a healthy rivalry, which will lead only to good results," Ilham Aliyev pointed out.
The Azerbaijani president noted that since Azerbaijan established the border checkpoint on the 23rd of April, there have been more than 2000 residents of Karabakh who easily moved to Armenia and back, but on 15th of June, Armenia made another military provocation and wounded one of Azerbaijani border security guards.
"The road was temporarily closed for investigation. But then, it was reopened. The Red Cross restarted again to transport medications and evacuate patients who need treatment in Armenia. But unfortunately, the Red Cross trucks when checked, we found smuggling goods like cigarettes, iPhones, and gasoline. So that's how again, it was blocked," Ilham Aliyev said.
The Azerbaijani head of state noted that the only stumbling block was that Armenia didn't want to recognize Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan officially.
"Yes, they did it by statements, by oral statements, which is also a position. But they need to sign the document. So, I don't think that these two issues are interrelated. Because I hope that peace negotiations with Armenia will end with successful scenario, hopefully, in the coming months," Ilham Aliyev noted.
Now, peace is on agenda, and if Armenia wants peace, they will reach it, because Azerbaijan do not have any territorial claims to Armenia, and it doesn't want Armenia to have any territorial claims to Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani leader stated.
"People who live in Karabakh - in area, which is controlled now temporarily by Russian peacekeepers – they live in Azerbaijan. They should choose whether to live as citizens of Azerbaijan as ethnic minority, as any other ethnic minority, which Azerbaijan is rich of or to leave. So, this is their choice. It is not because we want them to leave or as Armenia accuses us we organize ethnic cleansing. No, we give them a choice. How they can live on our territory being a citizen of either Armenia, without any legal permission, or a citizen of so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh republic”, which is not recognized by anyone? So, I think this is a legitimate approach, which is in line with international practice. It's in line with practice, which we see in many European countries, which also fight against separatism" Ilham Aliyev said.
Speaking about the 44-day war, the President of Azerbaijan stressed that winning a war was a mission of his political life, which ended successfully. He recalled that Azerbaijan won the war, despite many factors, political, despite factors of long-lasting infrastructure projects on the occupied territories, which made it very difficult for our military servicemen to break several defense lines.
"The Victory Road, as I called it later, did not exist. It was the road through which our military servicemen were moving towards Shusha. They were climbing these rocky mountains. So, despite these factors, despite strong political support from many countries, which have a big Armenian diaspora, we did what was right to do. We restored justice, and we restored our territorial integrity. We fought on our land. We didn't fight on the Armenian land and we won. So, that was a mission number one, which is over. Now we talk about peace," Ilham Aliyev stressed.
