(MENAFN- AzerNews) A plenary session of 6th Summit of the conference on Interaction
and Confidence Building Measures in Asia has kicked off in
Astana.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is
attending the event.
The heads of state and government posed together for a group
photo.
President Ilham Aliyev made a speech at the plenary session.
Speech by President Ilham Aliyev
-Distinguished President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart
Tokayev,
Distinguished Heads of State and Government,
Ladies and gentlemen,
First of all, I would like to thank President of Kazakhstan,
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for his invitation to the 6th CICA Summit and
for hospitality.
During President Tokayev's recent successful official visit to
Azerbaijan we had fruitful discussions on current issues of the
bilateral agenda.
Azerbaijan supports the political and socio-economic reforms in
Kazakhstan under the leadership of President Tokayev.
Dear colleagues,
As a result of the victory gained in the Second Karabakh war, 2
years ago Azerbaijan liberated its territories from the occupation
of Armenia, put an end to the three-decades-long Karabakh conflict,
ensured justice and itself, enforced the implementation of the 4 UN
Security Council resolutions adopted in 1993, demanding
unconditional withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijan's
occupied territories.
Our cities and villages, cultural and religious monuments,
mosques have been purposefully destroyed, desecrated and plundered
throughout almost 30-year occupation by Armenia. Even mosques were
used as stables for keeping animals.
Unfortunately, during three decades, we never heard any
opposition from Armenian society to such vandalism, vice versa,
this destruction and Armenian vandals, war criminals were even
glorified and presented as heroes.
Armenia committed systematic war crimes against Azerbaijani
civilians and military personnel. Around 3900 Azerbaijani citizens
still remain missing since the First Karabakh War. Most of them
have been tortured, killed and buried in mass graves. This year, we
discovered mass graves in two liberated villages.
Armenia has to provide Azerbaijan with information about the
fate of missing persons and exact locations of mass graves. We
demand this information for almost 2 years, but Armenian Government
refuses to share it with Azerbaijan thus associating itself with
criminal leaders of previous Armenian regimes.
Azerbaijan is among one of the most mine-contaminated countries
in the world. According to initial estimations, during the times of
occupation, Armenia planted more than one million landmines. During
2 years after the Second Karabakh War, more than 250 Azerbaijani
citizens were killed or severely injured as a result of landmine
explosions. International experts estimate that Azerbaijan needs
nearly 30 years and 25 billion US dollars to solve issues related
to demining.
Now, in parallel with mine clearance operations, Azerbaijan with
its own financial resources, undertakes a large-scale
reconstruction works in the liberated areas. We have also begun the
return process of the former internally displaced persons back to
their native lands. The program called“Great Return” has
started.
Despite the resolution of the Karabakh conflict, Armenia
continues its provocations at the border, the latest of which was
committed this September. Azerbaijani Armed Forces had to take
resolute counter-action to repel the military provocation of
Armenia. All responsibility for such provocations lies with the
military-political leadership of Armenia.
Despite the three-decades-long suffering of more than 1 million
of Azerbaijanis ethnically cleansed by Armenia from their native
lands, despite unprecedented barbarism, destruction of hundreds of
our cities and villages, Azerbaijan offered Armenia to sign a peace
treaty based on mutual recognition of each other's territorial
integrity.
Dear colleagues,
Large-scale transportation infrastructure projects implemented
by Azerbaijan transformed our country into one of the important
international transportation and logistics hubs. In the first 9
months of 2022, the transit through Azerbaijan increased by nearly
65 %.
Azerbaijan makes significant contribution to the development of
the East-West and North-South transportation corridors. Azerbaijan
actively promotes the creation of the Zangezur Corridor, which will
be an integral part of the Middle Corridor.
Since 2019 Azerbaijan is chairing, by unanimous decision of
Member States, the Non-Aligned Movement, the second largest
international structure after the UN. Our chairmanship was
unanimously prolonged for one more year until the end of 2023.
We are making huge efforts to strengthen the solidarity within
the NAM and to increase the Movement's political weight and global
visibility. Azerbaijan actively promotes the idea of NAM's
institutionalization to this end. In this context, it is worth
mentioning the NAM Parliamentarian Network and the NAM Youth
Organization, established by the initiatives of Azerbaijan. We also
suggested to convene next year a high-level meeting of the NAM
Member States to exchange views and formulate the position of the
Movement concerning the post-COVID-19 world.
Thank you!
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