Ilham Aliyev: “Our position is clear and precise. Karabakh is Azerbaijan”
Aliyev’s speech at CIS meeting
Ilham Aliyev again raised the topic of the ineffectiveness of the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group, the main facilitator in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. According to the President of Azerbaijan, the clashes at the border on September 13-14 were due to “terror by Armenia.” Aliyev also called one of the last statements of the President of France “hoodlum talk”.
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On October 14 Astana hosted a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The meeting was attended by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who also spoke.
“The conflict is considered settled”
At the beginning of his speech, the President of Azerbaijan again talked about the ineffectiveness of the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict:
“Colleagues are well aware that during the period of the occupation of the territory of Azerbaijan by the Armenian armed forces, I never brought this topic up for discussion within the CIS, since the OSCE Minsk Group dealt with the conflict settlement, it had a mandate. Unfortunately, for 28 years the result of the Minsk Group has been zero.
“And, as is now clear, the main goal of this structure was not to resolve the conflict, but to freeze it. Negotiating was only a cover for the conflict not to be resolved for many more years.
“Therefore, since the conflict is settled and Azerbaijan settled it itself in accordance with international law, the UN Charter, including Article 51 of the UN Charter, which assumes that every country has the right to self-defense, the conflict is considered settled.”
On border fighting in September
“The post-conflict situation is developing differently, so I would like to inform my colleagues in connection with what has been happening lately. In September, literally a month ago, clashes took place near the Azerbaijani-Armenian border. The reasons for these clashes are obvious – terror against Azerbaijan continues, mine terror and spying terror,” Aliyev said, alleging reasons for the clashes on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia on September 13-14, 2022.
“After the end of the second Karabakh war, more than 250 Azerbaijani citizens either died or were seriously maimed as a result of mine explosions, which were laid mainly during the occupation period. But at the same time, we discovered 1,400 anti-personnel mines made in Armenia, which were laid in 2021 near the border with the Lachin region. The roads that led from one Azerbaijani military position to another were also mined.
Aliyev’s speech at CIS meeting
“The clashes continued, the active phase lasted a maximum of eight hours. Azerbaijan had no intention of occupying the territory of Armenia, as some may believe. Not a single city, not a single village was occupied. I would like to emphasize that it was Russia that came up with a proposal for a ceasefire – some attribute this to other countries, which is completely unfounded – and which stopped the fighting,” he said.
About France and attacks on diplomatic missions
Aliyev elaborated on the latest statement by French President Emmanuel Macron on the latest developments in the region:
“On October 6, on the sidelines of the new platform of the European Political Community in Prague, a quadripartite meeting was held with the participation of the President of France, the President of the European Council, the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Azerbaijan.
“At the meeting, after many hours of negotiation, they came to a decision to send a civil mission of the European Union of forty people to the territory of Armenia near the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Subsequently, we learned that their number would be fifty people. They will stay there for at least two months and the purpose of this mission, as we see it, and so we agreed to this, is to help the parties to draw the border, to determine issues related to delimitation.
“There was an attempt to send this mission from Azerbaijan which was resolutely rejected by us. Therefore the mission will be located on the territory of Armenia, in the zone of responsibility of the CSTO. Yesterday the first group of European representatives arrived in Armenia to determine the location of this mission.
“Unfortunately, despite the fact that Azerbaijan agreed to hold a four-party meeting, including with the participation of the President of France even France has nothing to do with relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Azerbaijan, showing goodwill, allowed the French president to participate in this meeting.
“As for the participation of the President of the European Council, as you know several trilateral meetings have already been held in Brussels and, in principle, we have always supported the efforts of the European Union in the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations.
“So, despite the goodwill shown by Azerbaijan, just a week after the meeting in Prague, the French President made insulting, unacceptable, false and provocative statements. They are in print, everyone can see them.
“In these statements, he declared Azerbaijan to be engaged in a terrible war, thus, manipulating the facts, trying to mislead the French and world community. Azerbaijan waged war on its internationally recognized territory. Karabakh is recognized by the whole world as a part of Azerbaijan. We used the right to self-defense and restored our territorial integrity by force.
“It was further stated that France would never leave Armenia. Well, as they say, this is a matter of bilateral relations. And also tendentious statements were made against the Russian Federation, namely that “Russia played the Azerbaijani game.” How politically correct it is for the president of a great country to use street talk, let the French public decide.
For our part, we categorically condemn and reject such statements and see no further possibility for France to play any role in the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations with such an attitude from the French government.
In addition, the French Foreign Minister also made false anti-Azerbaijani statements, the French Senate and the lower house of their parliament adopted resolutions recognizing so-called Nagorno-Karabakh during the second Karabakh war. Although even Armenia did not recognize it. We know that another anti-Azerbaijani resolution is being prepared in the French Senate in mid-November
“Thus, unfortunately, the current French leadership, unlike the previous – and I had the opportunity to communicate quite closely with President Chirac, and with President Sarkozy, and with President Hollande, and relations were quite balanced, quite friendly, and we always perceived the activities of previous French presidents, despite, of course, a certain factor of the Armenian diaspora in France, as balanced. But the current French leadership has negated all this. I would like to inform colleagues about this situation.”
Aliyev’s speech at CIS meeting
The President of Azerbaijan also mentioned the recent attacks on the country’s diplomatic missions in different countries of the world:
“Further, the Azerbaijani embassy was attacked twice in Paris. Moreover, after the first attack, the President of France, in a telephone conversation with me, promised me that measures would be taken to prevent this from happening again. But this turned out to be untrue, to put it mildly.
“The guards that were posted in front of the Azerbaijani embassy after the first act of vandalism and an attempt to break into the embassy building were removed. Most likely this was agreed with the Armenian side. And as soon as security was removed, there was a second attempt to break in, there were insulting inscriptions, there were crowds of raging radicals who attacked the Azerbaijani embassy. This is categorically unacceptable and a violation of all diplomatic conventions.
“I must say that Armenia also organized provocations against the Azerbaijani embassy in Lebanon and against the Azerbaijani embassy in the United States. There were shootings, the car of the Azerbaijani embassy in the United States was shot at. We call on the authorities of the United States, France, Lebanon and all other countries where there are Azerbaijani diplomatic missions that are subjected to terror, to show responsibility and fulfill their international obligations.
“We have no doubts that the acts of terror and vandalism were organized by Armenia. Why am I saying this? Because in the 1990s, the Armenian special services carried out 32 terrorist acts – explosions in the subway, buses, ferries, trains. More than 2,000 Azerbaijani civilians were killed in these attacks.”
“We are still showing patience, but it is not limitless”
“One more thing I would like to note is that with the mediation of the Russian Federation, a tripartite declaration was adopted in November 2020. Azerbaijan fulfills all the points of the declaration, including ensuring unhindered access from Armenia to Karabakh.
“Armenia does not fulfill its part of the declaration. Namely, it does not provide unhindered access from the main part of Azerbaijan to the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, which is its legal obligation, and has not yet withdrawn the Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijani territory.
“We are still showing patience, but it is also not unlimited. If these two important points of the tripartite Statement of November 2020 are not implemented, we will have no other choice but to act in kind,” Aliyev said.
Aliyev’s speech at CIS meeting
“Our position is clear and precise. Karabakh is Azerbaijan”
“And in conclusion, on the fate of the Armenians of Karabakh. At the meeting in Prague,we also had an exchange of views on this issue. Our position is clear and precise. Karabakh is Azerbaijan. The rights and security of the Armenian population of Karabakh will be ensured in accordance with the Constitution of Azerbaijan.
We are not going to discuss our internal issues with either side. And as far as I understood the results of the meeting in Prague, this topic did not cause any discrepancies between all the participants of the quadripartite meeting,” the President of Azerbaijan concluded.
Aliyev’s speech at CIS meeting
