(
MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 6. As previously
reported, on 6 October President of the Republic of Azerbaijan
Ilham Aliyev was interviewed by the Russian "Perviy Kanal"
television.
Trend presents the interview.
My name is Yevgeniy, I am a correspondent of "Perviy
Kanal". Thank you very much!
President Ilham Aliyev: Very nice to meet you.
Thank you!
-Ilham Heydar oglu, you have repeatedly stated that the
goal of the current offensive operation is the return of Karabakh.
"Karabakh is our land and we will return there" – these are your
words. Quite an unequivocal position. But the position of the
opposite side is no less unambiguous – "We will not give up an inch
of land". This, as it turns out, is a road to nowhere. In your
opinion, what should happen for Azerbaijan and Armenia to sit down
at the negotiating table?
-First of all, four resolutions of the UN Security Council,
which were adopted in 1993, at a time when the Armenian occupying
forces were seizing the territories of Azerbaijan, must be
implemented. These resolutions send a very clear signal to the
aggressor. They state that an immediate, unconditional and full
return of the occupied territories must be ensured. Twenty-seven
years have passed since then. The Armenian side does not comply
with these resolutions, ignores them and tries in every possible
way to freeze the conflict as much and as far as possible. All
calls from the international community, including the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chair countries, that the status quo is unacceptable and
must be changed, remain in the air. Therefore, our position is
based on the norms and principles of international law and on
historical justice. Meanwhile, the Armenian position is based on
historical lies and violation of the norms and principles of
international law. As soon as the resolutions of the UN Security
Council are implemented by Armenia, as soon as Armenia agrees to
the withdrawal of its troops from the occupied territories, I am
sure that both sides can come to an agreement that will establish
peace in the Caucasus in a short time.
-Fighting has been going on for more than a week now
and, judging by the video footage circulated by both sides, it is
clear that the fighting is quite intense and involves heavy losses.
Can you cite these figures from the Azerbaijani side?
-On our side, as a result of shelling from Armenia and from
Nagorno-Karabakh, 27 civilians have been killed and more than 170
civilians have received wounds of varying degree of severity. More
than 800 houses have been destroyed. The current escalation of the
confrontation began on 27 September, when shelling of Azerbaijani
settlements, as well as our combat positions, began from the
occupied territories, as a result of which civilians and servicemen
were killed in the very first minutes of this attack. We were
forced to take adequate action and quickly launched a
counteroffensive. As a result of this counteroffensive, we
suppressed a large number of firing points and combat positions of
the opposing side and liberated a part of the occupied territories
in the northern and southern directions. Therefore, many
settlements of Azerbaijan, citizens living there, can already live
normally there because they are beyond the reach of Armenian
artillery. In recent days, however, the shelling of the territory
of Azerbaijan is carried out by long-range artillery from the
territory of Armenia, using such deadly systems as "Point U" and
"Elbrus", which represents a flagrant violation of the Geneva
Convention, a crime, a war crime. The shelling of the town of
Tartar, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the conflict
zone, continues this morning too. The population of Ganja, the
second largest city of Azerbaijan, was also shelled. One missile
hit the territory of our largest power plant in Mingachevir. More
than 10 of our cities and hundreds of villages are subjected to
massive artillery bombardment. This is an old tactic of the
Armenian side. Every time they suffer defeats on the battlefield,
they resort to such ignoble actions, trying to harm the civilian
population and thus attempting to stop the counteroffensive of the
Azerbaijani army. But they are not succeeding and will not
succeed.
-Is it possible to talk about military
losses?
-Military losses. To date, the information related to this is
confidential. The Azerbaijani public will be informed about this
after the end of the active phase of hostilities.
-You are calling on Turkey to participate in the
settlement of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. What exactly, in
your opinion, should this participation consist in? Should there be
a military or political effort?
-I said this yesterday, proceeding from the fact that Armenia's
aggressive actions continue, proceeding from the fact that Armenia
is trying in every possible way to involve as many countries as
possible in this conflict. I spoke in an interview about the
inadmissibility of such a policy. The conflict should not go beyond
the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. In fact, the conflict does
not even enter the territory of Armenia. Despite the shelling from
the Armenian territory, we do not strike any strikes on the
territory of Armenia, we do not go into the territory of Armenia
although there are all the possibilities to do that. The Armenian
side is trying to drag the CSTO into this confrontation, but to no
avail. It is trying to involve European countries. In essence, it
is trying to internationalize this conflict, and we, accordingly,
present our position on the inadmissibility of such an approach.
Regarding my statement about Turkey's involvement. I meant, of
course, only a political settlement, a post-conflict settlement. At
the moment, Turkey is not in any way involved in the conflict,
despite all rumors and insinuations in this regard. This is not
supported by any facts – for example about the Turkish F-16 fighter
shooting down an Armenian SU-25. This news circulated both in
Russian and European media. There is no evidence. It turned out
that the Armenian pilot, apparently due to a lack of professional
training, crashed into the mountain. Such fake news are often
thrown into circulation. I don't know for what purpose. I can only
guess. But they have no foundation whatsoever. So, when the phase
of the military confrontation ends, we will, of course, return to
the negotiating table. By the way, from the very beginning of the
hostilities, Azerbaijan said that we are not leaving the process of
negotiations, we are counting on a political settlement, but there
must be a settlement. We cannot sit and wait for another 30 years
for pressure to be put on Armenia. Of course, Turkey, as a great
country, as our neighbor and neighbor in the South Caucasus, has
every right to take part in the mediation mission that will be
carried out after the end of hostilities. Given that the current
mediation mission has not led to any results for 28 years but led
to inaction, to what we are seeing now, we must, of course, proceed
from a pragmatic approach – who can really have a positive impact
on events in the region, reduce escalation, establish a lasting
peace and develop cooperation. Of course, first of all, I think,
these are Turkey and Russia.
-You mentioned European countries. You responded quite
harshly to the President of France and called on him to apologize
for the words about the mercenaries who are fighting on the side of
the Azerbaijani army. Can you confirm once again today that the
mercenaries do not participate in the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
on the side of Azerbaijan?
-I have been talking about this all these days. I am surprised
with such media speculation, and in my telephone conversations with
the President of France I defended our position with sufficient
reasoning. First, I asked for evidence, and if there is no
evidence, then he should apologize to the Azerbaijani people.
Secondly, I said we do not need mercenaries. Today Azerbaijan has a
powerful army. According to all international ratings, it is among
top 50 most powerful armies in the world. We have 100,000 fighters
under arms, not counting the reservists and not counting other
paramilitary formations ready for battle. Today the Azerbaijani
army is liberating our territories. Videos from the scene of
hostilities show our artillery and drones in action, they should,
Azerbaijani soldiers and officers planting flags in the lands
already liberated from occupation. Therefore, these accusations are
unfounded, we resolutely reject them and cannot allow such rumors
and unverified data to somehow manipulate public opinion. Let them
provide evidence. We are in the tenth day of hostilities, but no
evidence has been presented to us.
-If we assume that the hostilities are over and
Azerbaijan has achieved its goals, what is the future for Karabakh
given the number of Armenians living there? What will happen to
them?
-I have also repeatedly spoken on this topic before and during
the escalation. As recently as yesterday, in an interview with a
Turkish TV channel, I said that we consider the Armenians living in
the territory of Karabakh our citizens. And we believe that after
the settlement of the conflict, after the end of the occupation,
the Armenian and Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh should
live together, as has been the case for many years. When the
conflict began in the late 1980s, 75 percent of the population in
Nagorno-Karabakh was Armenian and 25 percent Azerbaijani. The city
of Shusha, where they held the so-called "inauguration" of the
leader of the criminal regime and insulted the Azerbaijani people,
consisted of the Azerbaijani population by 98 percent. The city of
Shusha was founded by the Azerbaijani Panahali Khan. This is an
ancient Azerbaijani city from which all Azerbaijanis were expelled.
So after the end of the conflict, after a peaceful settlement,
which, by the way, is reflected in the fundamental principles, the
so-called Madrid principles, the Azerbaijani population should
return to the occupied territories. It is explicitly stated that
all displaced persons have the right to return to their places of
residence. Thus, after a peace agreement is reached, and I hope
that this will happen, the Azerbaijanis will return to
Nagorno-Karabakh and will live where they used to live. My position
has always been that we must return to the atmosphere that existed
before the start of the conflict in the late 1980s. I think it is
possible. It will not be easy after what the Armenian executioners
did in Khojaly, having exterminated the civilian population,
destroyed our historical and religious sites and erased the
historical heritage of Azerbaijanis from these territories. It will
not be easy. But I believe that we should strive for this. And my
appeal to the people of Armenia and to those who live in
Nagorno-Karabakh now was repeatedly expressed during the
hostilities. I called on the Armenian people to reason their
government. I called on Armenian mothers not to send their children
to the occupied territories. It is probably no secret for anyone
that the so-called army of Nagorno-Karabakh does not exist. What is
called the army of Nagorno-Karabakh consists by 90 percent of the
citizens of Armenia. I made these calls. I have not heard such
calls from the Armenian side these days – apart from hatred, apart
from aggression, apart from threats and apart from completely
inappropriate actions. Our position is that we are in favor of a
peaceful settlement of the conflict. I am confident that if there
is political will on the part of Armenia, we will be able to
achieve this.
Ilham Heydar oglu, sooner or later, all wars end in
peace. How do you imagine this moment?
-You know, it is difficult to talk about this because our people
have experienced so much grief, so much suffering has been
inflicted on them by Armenian occupiers that it is very difficult
to imagine this moment now as a holistic picture. We have not had
peace for over 30 years. What we had over the past more than two
decades has been a truce. But everyone understood that it was
unstable, it was not durable. Therefore, the co-chairs of the Minsk
Group represented by the presidents of Russia, the United States
and France made statements several years ago, there was more than
one statement of this kind, that the status quo is unacceptable and
that it must be changed. They perfectly understood and understand
that this truce is very fragile and unstable. Today's escalation
confirms this once again. Therefore, if we talk about peace, first
of all, I see it as a political settlement that would be
comprehensive, that would be long-term, that would be eternal with
serious guarantees from leading countries of the world, countries
that would be acceptable to both Azerbaijan and Armenia. I do not
exclude that the composition of these countries may be different
from the composition of the Minsk Group and its co-chairs today.
Because the Minsk Group was set up in 1992, in completely different
geopolitical realities, just after the collapse of the USSR and, to
be honest, I don't quite understand the basis on which this group
was established. Because there must be some principle on which this
or that association or temporary format is created. Therefore, I
think that, returning to what we talked about earlier, the active
participation of regional powers, guarantees of international
organizations and, of course, the return of Azerbaijanis to the
lands that rightfully belong to them.
-A clarifying question. What configuration can that be,
in your opinion?
-It is probably premature to talk about it. I think I am
slightly jumping the gun already. I just want our neighbors and
partners to know my position. I think that regional cooperation has
already proved its worth in many areas. If we pay attention to
recent years, we can see that Azerbaijan, together with its
neighbors, has worked very hard to create a strong regional
cooperation format – political, economic, transport, energy and any
other. Suffice it to look at the achievements we have made after
many years by signing the Convention on the Settlement of the Legal
Status of the Caspian Sea. Almost from the very beginning of their
independence, some of the five Caspian littoral countries could not
agree but then, showing good will, we came to agreement and saw the
advantages. Today, cooperation between such a great power as Russia
and such a great power as Turkey, a NATO member, is much more
sincere, durable and effective than cooperation of NATO member
Turkey with, say, another NATO country that constantly accuses
Turkey of something. These are new geopolitical realities. This was
not the case in 1992. The world has changed. It is changing right
before our eyes. And we must proceed from this, not from any
dogmas, not from any assumptions or established opinions that this
or that country has a potential for a solution. Today, when the
conflict has entered an active phase and when the Armenian prime
minister, as I can see, is annoying world leaders with his phone
calls, it is clear who has the potential for settlement. These are
the countries that have the potential for a settlement, the
countries Azerbaijan respects for dignity, justice and sincerity.
They should be the guarantors of long-term peace.
-Thank you very much for the detailed answers and for
the interview.
-Thank you!
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