Ilham Aliyev: Azerbaijan is ready to start negotiations on peace agreement with Armenia

Azerbaijan is ready for peace agreement negotiations with Armenia

On September 23, during the general debates of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly of heads of state and government, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made a video presentation. He spoke about the second Karabakh war, said that there is no administrative unit called “Nagorno-Karabakh” and expressed the readiness of his country to negotiate a peace agreement.

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UN Security Council resolutions

Aliyev recalled that on September 24, 2020, speaking at the UN General Assembly, he drew the participants’ attention to “the continuation of the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and the aggressive statements and actions of the Armenian government.” “Today I say with pride that Armenia was defeated on the battlefield and Azerbaijan put an end to the occupation”, the President of Azerbaijan added.

According to him, four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council in 1993 demanded the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan: “While some resolutions of the UN Security Council are implemented within a few days, when it comes to us, they remained outstanding for 27 years. And this is a clear example of double standards”. Aliyev added that Azerbaijan itself fulfilled the requirements of all these resolutions.

Beginning of the second Karabakh war

Ilham Aliyev noted that three days after his speech at the UN General Assembly in 2020 – September 27 – “Armenia launched a large-scale offensive against the military positions and civilians of Azerbaijan”.

“In response to this, Azerbaijan, taking advantage of the right to self-defense, enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter, launched a counter-offensive operation against Armenia on its territory”, he stressed.

Nagorno-Karabakh

“Azerbaijan has resolved the 30-year-old conflict by military-political means, restored its territorial integrity and historical justice. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a thing of the past.

There is no longer an administrative-territorial unit in Azerbaijan called Nagorno-Karabakh. By presidential decree of July 7, 2021, we created the Karabakh and East Zangezur economic zones.

Taking this opportunity, I urge the UN member states and the UN Secretariat, when referring to our territories, not to allow the use of manipulative names that do not exist from a legal point of view, politically biased”, Aliyev said.

Minefield maps

Noting that the conflict is already in the past, the President of Azerbaijan spoke about the large-scale construction work carried out in the liberated territories.

“However, the main difficulty is connected with the presence of numerous mines placed by Armenia in the liberated territories. After the signing of the act of surrender by Armenia on November 10, 2020, 30 Azerbaijani citizens have been killed, including two journalists, and 130 people have been injured.

Azerbaijan is one of the countries in the world, the territories of which have undergone the greatest mining. This hinders the recovery process in the liberated territories and the return of internally displaced persons to their homes.

Armenia refuses to transfer accurate maps of minefields to Azerbaijan. The accuracy of the minefield maps for the three regions that Armenia was forced to transfer is 25%. The international community must force Armenia to give us accurate maps of minefields in the liberated territories”, Aliyev said.

Peace agreement

“Azerbaijan has already announced its readiness to start negotiations on a peace agreement with Armenia on the basis of the principle of delimitation and demarcation of borders, mutual recognition of each other’s sovereignty, and territorial integrity. Such an agreement could turn our region into a region of peace and cooperation. However, we still do not see a positive reaction from Armenia to our proposal”, the President of Azerbaijan noted.

According to him, transport projects can become one of the spheres serving peace and cooperation: “In this context, the Zangezur corridor, which will connect the main part of Azerbaijan with the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic and Turkey, will create new opportunities for our region.

… We hope that the long-awaited peace, security, and stability will finally be established in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan will continue its consistent efforts contributing to regional peace and development, serving to strengthen the region”.