The Karabakh conflict was left behind, Azerbaijan resolved the conflict by military-political means, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in his speech at a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States, held in the format of a video conference.
The head of state noted that the negotiation process, which had lasted for many years, remained without result. Therefore, Azerbaijan resolved the conflict by military-political means.
The head of state emphasized the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin in achieving an end to hostilities. "I would like to once again note the special role of the President of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, in the cessation of hostilities, which made it possible to avoid thousands of casualties on both sides," Ilham Aliyev said.
He stressed that in accordance with the trilateral statement, Armenia withdrew its occupation forces from the occupied parts of the Agdam, Lachin and Kalbajar regions of Azerbaijan.
"Prior to that, the armed forces of Azerbaijan liberated more than 300 cities and villages on the battlefield. Thus, the conflict was resolved, as already noted, by military-political means. Also, in accordance with the trilateral statement, Russian peacekeepers were brought into the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. To resolve issues with the opening of transport communications, a working group was created under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia," President Aliyev said.
The Azerbaijani leader stressed that city of Agdam is called Hiroshima of the Caucasus.
After the war, over 150 Azerbaijani citizens either died or were seriously injured as a result of exploding mines, President Aliyev said. He stressed that Armenia refuses to hand over complete maps of minefields, noting that the small number of such maps that were transferred to Azerbaijan have an accuracy of about 25%.
"In the liberated territories, almost all buildings and historical monuments have been destroyed in thirty years. Some 65 of the 67 mosques in the liberated territories have been completely destroyed," the head of state said, stressing that the Armenians kept pigs and cows in the remaining two mosques, deliberately insulting the feelings of Muslims.
According to him, Armenia destroyed 16 out of 17 mosques that existed in Shusha before the occupation. President Aliyev noted that one mosque was left to demonstrate "tolerance" and with the complicity of the so-called specialists from Iran there was an attempt to present it as a Persian mosque.
"There was also a huge damage to nature, about 60,000 hectares of forests were cut down, sawn, and sold to Armenia and Iran," the head of state said.
Ilham Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan is ready to start negotiations with Armenia on border delimitation, under the condition of mutual recognition of territorial integrity, and Azerbaijan is also ready to start negotiations on a peace agreement with Armenia.
