(
MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 26. The
Azerbaijani
army launched a counter-offensive operation, later
called the "Iron Fist", on September 27, 2020, in response to the
large-scale provocation of the Armenian
armed forces along the
frontline.
The erupted 44-day second Karabakh war ended with the
liberation of Azerbaijan's territories from nearly 30-year Armenian
occupation and the restoration of territorial integrity.
On 26 October President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham
Aliyev was interviewed by the Italian Rai 1 TV channel.
Trend presents the interview:
- Mr. President, good afternoon. Please tell us if this
new truce, this new ceasefire will hold. If I am not mistaken, this
is the third ceasefire.
- Everything will depend on how Armenia behaves because the
first two ceasefires were disrupted by Armenia. After the first
ceasefire, which was declared for humanitarian considerations,
Armenia violated the ceasefire within 24 hours and barbarically
launched a ballistic missile at the city of Ganja at night. As a
result of the first shelling, 10 people were killed and many were
wounded. Then they hit Ganja again, and also at night. There were
even more victims. So we had to answer. As for the second truce, we
have a chronology of Armenia's violations of the ceasefire. They
violated it literally two minutes after the appointed hour of the
truce. Today, at 8 o'clock, a new truce came into force. Now it is
10 o'clock in the morning in Baku. At about 3-4 minutes after the
ceasefire entered into force at 8 o'clock, several shells were
fired at the city of Tartar again. We are not reacting to this. We
hope this was an accident, but if this continues, we will be forced
to respond adequately.
- Mr. President, what actually caused the outbreak of
hostilities at the end of September? Why did this
happen?
- There was a series of events of political and military nature.
Armenia's main goal was to disrupt the process of negotiations in
every possible way. The new government of Armenia has repeatedly
stated that the fundamental principles are unacceptable for it,
that it is not going to return a single centimeter of the occupied
territories, which contradicts the fundamental principles. The
prime minister stated that we should negotiate not with Armenia but
with the so-called leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is
unacceptable both for us and for the OSCE Minsk Group. He also
stated that 'Karabakh is Armenia, full stop', thereby completely
undermining the negotiations. In the past year, there were
practically no negotiations, and in order to shift the blame on us,
Armenia made three sabotage attempts – in July on the border, in
August when they sent a sabotage group, and in September when they
shelled our cities. They probably thought that we would show
restraint again, but that did not happen. We answered them in a
manner that they are now regretting it.
- On what conditions will you agree to stop the
hostilities then? You have repeatedly spoken about the need for a
constructive approach on the part of Armenia. What should a
constructive approach be like?
- A constructive approach should be that they must publicly
declare, through the prime minister, that they accept the
fundamental principles. The fundamental principles envisage the
return of seven districts located around the Nagorno-Karabakh
autonomous region to Azerbaijan and the return of Azerbaijani
refugees to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, including the
ancient Azerbaijani city of Shusha. These approaches are, in
principle, based on four UN Security Council resolutions, which
require practically the same. But when the Armenian prime minister
says that not a single centimeter of land will be given to us, when
the Armenian defense minister says that Armenia will start a new
war for new territories and when aggression is carried out against
us, this is not a constructive approach, of course. He must say
that yes, the occupied territories will be returned to Azerbaijan,
that the Azerbaijanis will return to Nagorno-Karabakh, including
Shusha, and then, of course, we will come to an agreement very
quickly.
-Mr. President, there is one very controversial issue.
Some countries, not only Armenia, but also France, have somehow
accused you and Turkey of sending thousands of mercenaries,
jihadists from Syria to Karabakh via Turkey. How will you respond
to such accusations, and how will you respond to the accusations
that speak of the presence of Turkish troops and Turkish military
aircraft on the territory of Azerbaijan?
- I have already answered this question many times and I will
answer it again. First, such unfounded accusations were brought
against us by only two countries – France and Russia. France said
that through the President, Russia through the head of the Foreign
Intelligence Service. These charges were brought against us
immediately after the outbreak of hostilities. Although almost a
month has already passed, not a single piece of evidence, no proof
was provided to us. In fact, I will say this for the first time – I
asked the French side for the heads of relevant agencies to meet,
discuss the issue and provide us with evidence. Nothing was
presented to us. Therefore, these are all insinuations. All this is
an attempt to cast a shadow on Azerbaijan. I regret that such
unfounded accusations come from the co-chair countries, which are
supposed to be objective. After all, we do not talk every day about
how many weapons are supplied from Russia to Armenia. We do not
talk about the fact that Armenia would not have lasted a day in the
occupied territories without external assistance. Political
support, military support, moral support – all this comes from
countries that are supposed to stay neutral. Therefore, we strongly
reject these insinuations. It is not necessary. We have 100,000
soldiers of the regular army. If necessary, we will announce
overall mobilization, which, by the way, we have not done unlike
Armenia. Therefore, this is all lies and slander. As for the
participation of Turkish troops in operations, this is also a lie.
There is not a single piece of evidence. The fact that Turkish
F-16s are on the territory of Azerbaijan was a result of our joint
military exercises on the eve of the conflict. We do not talk about
how many Russian MIG-29s and Su-30s are on the territory of
Armenia. We do not talk about the fact that 5,000 Russian troops
are located at the base in Armenia in Gumru and, according to our
data, there are periodical supplies of the Armenian armed forces
from there. These are facts, in contrast to what is being said
about us. Therefore, I suggest that those who want to accuse us
first deal with themselves and then make such hasty conclusions
based on false information.
- Mr. President, my last question more or less also
concerns our country, Italy. You probably know that in Europe there
are many successful examples of a peaceful settlement of
territorial disputes or separatism. We have one of such examples in
Italy. It is Alto Adige/Südtirol. Don't you think that Italy could
help you with its experience in resolving the status of Karabakh?
Moreover, Italy has very good, close and strong political and
cultural relations with you and also with Armenia.
- Yes, I believe that Italy can play a very important role in
the settlement of the conflict. I must say that when the Minsk
Group was formed, a very long time ago, almost 30 years ago, it was
the Italian representative, the Italian diplomat who was the leader
of this Minsk Group. That was before the institution of co-chairs
was established. After the institution of the co-chairs was
created, the Minsk Group as a group of countries did not produce
any results because the co-chairs took this activity into their
monopoly. We know what this has led to. For 28 years, there has
been no progress, no results, only promises, only bureaucratic
procedures. In essence, it seems to us today that the activities of
the co-chairs were aimed at freezing the conflict, not at resolving
it. As for the model that exists in Italy, we have studied it. We
also studied the model of the Aland Islands and other successful
autonomy experiences. Azerbaijan, unlike Armenia, is a multiethnic
state. In Armenia, as you probably know, 99 percent of the
population are Armenians. Therefore, this is a very positive
experience of self-government which could be applied in our case.
In fact, as far as I know, such proposals were made in the
mid-1990s. Even groups of representatives of non-governmental
organizations and political scientists have visited your country,
the region you are talking about, and the Aland Islands. But
Armenia has always categorically rejected this. They believed that
they would be able to occupy our territories forever relying on
military, political and economic support from leading countries of
the world, but they made a gross miscalculation. We are proving our
case on the battlefield today. We are implementing UN Security
Council resolutions and are restoring international law.
- Mr. President, the very last question: at what level
will we be in this conflict in one year? Or will it already be
resolved by then?
- You know, I communicate with representatives of foreign media
almost every day during this month, and in my addresses to the
Azerbaijani people I always clearly state our position. We see the
future of the Karabakh region – not only the upper part of it but
also the plain because Karabakh is a large part of Azerbaijan – as
a prosperous and peaceful territory where Azerbaijanis, who must
return there, and the Armenians who now live there will live in
peace. Our position is this. I believe that this can be achieved
with mutual goodwill of the parties. After all, thousands of
Armenians live in Baku and other cities of Azerbaijan today. The
Azerbaijanis and Armenians have joint businesses in Russia and
Georgia. There are mixed families. Therefore, I think that
reconciliation is possible. The Armenian leadership should simply
abandon its aggressive policy. And if this happens, with our
investments and our experience of rebuilding the country, we can
turn this region into one of the most prosperous regions in the
world. But for this to happen, the consequences of the war must be
eliminated. The occupation must be eliminated, the Azerbaijanis
must return to the lands where they have lived for centuries, and
live in harmony with the Armenian population. It will not be easy
and it will take time. But we know how countries were reconciled
after World War II, when European countries were at war – the
current neighbors, and many people were killed. But this should not
sit in the memory all the time and produce hatred, which is what
Armenian ideologists are doing today. Goodwill must be shown. If
that happens, what I am saying will happen. If not, we will return
these lands anyway. And the current state of affairs on the
battlefield is showing that. We will return them at any cost.
Either peacefully or war, but we will return them. Therefore, I
think the Armenian leadership should seriously think about it and
take the right step.
- Thank you very much, Mr. President, and as they say in
Italian, Bono Fortuno!
- Thank you, all the best to you too. Thank you!
- Goodbye!
- Goodbye!
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