Azernews.Az

By Vafa Ismayilova

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wanted the ceasefire to get more military assistance for further attacks against Azerbaijan.

President Ilham Aliyev made the remarks in an interview with the Spanish EFE news agency on November 4.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly stated that humanitarian ceasefire agreements that Armenia and Azerbaijan reached on 10 October, 17 October and 26 October through the Russian and US mediations were violated by Armenia.

“He wants to win time, he wants to have the ceasefire in order to get some more military assistance. He wants to use this ceasefire in order to launch new attacks on Azerbaijan and to regain back the territories which we liberated. That’s what he is after,” the president said.

Ninety-two Azerbaijani civilians have been killed and hundreds of others have been injured in Armenia's indiscriminate missile attacks on Azerbaijani civilian settlements and cities. Armenia violated the three truce agreement that entered force on October 10, 16 and 26.

“All three times, it was Armenia’s deliberate, aggressive attack on us, and we had to respond, we had to defend ourselves,” he said.

Azerbaijani forces dominating at the frontline

The president said that on the sixth week of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani armed forces show dominance on the frontline.

“And during this time on the battlefield Azerbaijan liberated a large part of its territory which was under occupation for almost thirty years, and successful counter-offensive operation of the Azerbaijani army continues,” he said.

The president said that Azerbaijani army was liberating the country’s internationally recognized lands and restoring territorial integrity.

“By the way, we implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions, which demanded the withdrawal of Armenian troops from our territories but were not implemented by Armenia for almost thirty years,” he added.

Aliyev stressed that “actually 4 of the 5 occupied districts have already been liberated, either completely or partially. Today we are in an active phase of de-occupation of other districts which have been under occupation”.

Speaking about the time-table with dates of the Armenian troops’ withdrawal from occupied Azerbaijani territories, Aliyev urged Armenia to publicly make a statement about the withdrawal from the occupied lands.

“The time-table for withdrawal from part of Aghdam district which is still under occupation and from Kalbajar and Lachin should be presented to us… So we expect from Armenian prime minister to say openly, publicly that they will withdraw from Kalbajar, Lachin and the remaining part of Aghdam,” he said.

Aliyev said that if Pashinyan, “the person who is responsible for this bloodshed makes such a statement, we are ready to stop immediately”.

“We need a precise time-table for Kalbajar, Lachin and part of Aghdam to be liberated. And then, I think the peace will come to the region,” he said.

The president said that Armenia was not quite clear while talking about compromises.

“When they talk about compromise they do not say anything concrete. They talk only about self-determination. But self-determination is not a compromise on their side. They should be more accurate in their position because it is very ambiguous now,” he said.

Further meetings with Pashinyan useless

Aliyev described any further meetings with the Armenian prime minister as useless.

“No point in that at all. I had many meetings with him in the past two years. But all of them were absolutely useless and senseless,” he said.

The president said that Pashinyan had done everything to destroy the negotiation process.

“Therefore, at this point, I don’t see any sense in meeting with him. Our foreign ministers met recently in Geneva. And I think, this is the proper format now for the communications” the president said.

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs

Speaking about the role of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs' role in the resolution of the conflict, Aliyev said that they did not use all their tools which they have in order to exert pressure on Armenia to vacate the occupied territories.

“The basic principles which are on the table now, it is the principles which were elaborated with the assistance of the Minsk Group. So, they worked, they tried. But they did not use all their tools which they have in order to press Armenia to liberate the territories. Each of these countries unilaterally has enough leverages on Armenia, whether it’s military support, political support, economic support, diaspora support etc,” he said.

He said the countries in question failed not only to put sanctions but also to make any statements in this regard.

Azerbaijan not using banned weapons

Aliyev stressed Azerbaijan did not use any banned weapons during the operations in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We do not use forbidden weapons. We have enough ammunition in order to restore our territorial integrity,” he said.

He noted that the Azerbaijani army earlier had to hit important military facilities concentrated in Khankandi, capital of the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh republic, to provide security of Azerbaijani servicemen and ensure the efficiency of their operations. However, he added that Azerbaijan did not attack civilians.

“After the humanitarian ceasefire was announced, and many times we announced that, we never hit any city or any village, where people lived,” the president said.

He spoke about the use of banned Smerch missiles in Ganca, Barda and other territories.

“There have been many attacks... That is absolutely beyond any norms of human behaviour... And the cluster bombs which they used have been verified by international media and NGOs. I am sure that the first who reported about that were international media who visited them. And Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch just didn’t have any other option rather than to acknowledge that,” Aliyev said.

Aliyev also questioned the neutrality of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

“But the question is, why they didn’t come in the first place to Azerbaijan. Why were they working only on Armenian side? Only after international media, Western media showed those cluster bombs which Armenians use, then these two NGOs confirmed that. It is good that they did. But frankly speaking, I cannot imagine how they could not confirm it, because when it’s obvious,” he said.

No mercenaries in Azerbaijan

Commenting on Lavrov’s latest statement that nearly 2,000 mercenaries fight in Nagorno-Karabakh, Aliyev once again repeated Azerbaijan needed no mercenaries.

“We don’t have any mercenaries. Many times I said about that, we don’t need them. We have an army of 100 thousand fighters... There is no evidence of any foreign fighters fighting on our side... Not a single document, not a single proof was given to us, only statements,” Aliyev said.

Aliyev said that Azerbaijan had a list of people already eliminated with foreign passports.

“American, French, Canadian, Lebanese, from Iraq, from countries of the post-Soviet area. Dozens of them coming from Georgia. Yes, they are native Armenians, but it doesn’t make any difference. If they are citizens of another country, they are considered to be acting there illegally. And so far, nothing was said about that. Though, we have proofs. We have passports in our hands. We have evidence, video. Nothing is said about that. So, this is a selective approach which cannot be accepted by us,” he said.

No Turkish military involvement in Karabakh

President Ilham Aliyev described as another fake news the reports alleging Turkey’s military involvement in Azerbaijan’s counter-offensive operations.

“I would say that this is another provocation, another false news. There is no military support from Turkey, apart from the fact that we are buying modern military equipment from Turkey. This is true. And this is sophisticated, modern equipment that I think every army in the world would have envied about. And Turkey’s military-industrial complex really demonstrates miracles,” Aliyev said.

Aliyev stressed that the military equipment bought from Turkey helped Azerbaijan a lot on the battlefield.

“But we buy it. We sign contracts. Everything is transparent. Everything is legal. We buy weapons from other countries. Why nobody talks about how many weapons we bought from Russia? Only Turkey. Because Turkey is now in the centre of attack from unfortunately different European politicians. There are attempts to demonize Turkey. There are attempts to blackmail Turkey, to press it. This is absolutely unacceptable,” he said.

Russia’s military help to Armenia

“Those who always keep saying that Turkey provides military support to us, why don’t they say that Russia provides military support to Armenia? A mediator, Minsk Group co-chair. We have proofs in our hands. We delivered this information to Russian officials. How many weapons were delivered to Armenia during these forty days? Why does nobody talk about that? Let’s talk about that. Let’s be fair. Therefore, first, this is wrong. Second, we buy Turkish military equipment and we will continue to do it. And third, there should be no double standards about that. And those, by the way, who tells that Azerbaijan is militarily supported by Turkey, I think should refrain from these absurd accusations,” he added.

Attempts to internationalize the conflict

Speaking about Armenia’s efforts to internationalize the conflict, Aliyev said that he had called on all the countries to stay away.

“That is what Armenia wanted to do from the very beginning. And we were always against. I said many times to all the countries, ‘stay away from this conflict’. It is our business, it’s our battle for territorial integrity. And there should be no attempts to internationalize the conflict.”

Aliyev said that Pahinyan’s latest letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking for aid once again shows Armenia’s defeat, but also proves Armenia’s another attempt to involve Russia in the conflict. Aliyev described all this as unacceptable as the battle is going on the Azerbaijani territories.

Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan’s all neighbours support its territorial integrity.

“So, Armenia is in isolation. So, they want to internationalize the conflict. They want to exploit some fake news and some fake news from history, in order to get support. But the best way for Armenia to act now is to admit their defeat, admit our victory and make a commitment that they will vacate the remaining part of the territories," he said.

The future status of Nagorno-Karabakh

Aliyev ruled out any possibility that Armenia will recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Because, they clearly understand that by this very irrational step, negotiations will stop. Absolutely. So, if they do it, there will be nothing to talk about. And then, no peaceful initiative, no basic principles, no future settlement, nothing will be on the table,” he said.

Speaking about the possibility of the region’s presence within Azerbaijan as an autonomy, Aliyev said that the issue should be part of future discussions.

“First, we need to end this hot stage of the conflict, come back to the negotiation table. Armenia should make these commitments which I already said. And then we can talk about what will be happening in the future. I cannot say anything about that now,” he said.

He said that the first part of the basic principles on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement demanded the withdrawal from occupied territories. Those principles also included other elements, like security, peacekeeping operations, the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. He said that Azerbaijan was always very open to discussing the said issues.

Aliyev recalled that Azerbaijan had earlier offered the Armenians living in Karabakh many options regarding the region's status, that is good examples in the world, in Europe.

“But they rejected everything. They demanded independence only. And they wanted us to recognize this independence. By doing that they actually knew that we will never do it, they were doing everything to freeze the conflict,” the president said.

Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan escalated on September 27 when Armenian armed forces deployed in the occupied Azerbaijani lands made military provocations against Azerbaijani civilian settlements and military positions. The ongoing clashes mark the most intense fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces since 1994 when a ceasefire was reached. Armenia's offensive prompted immediate Azerbaijan’s counter-attack measures.

In retaliation, Azerbaijani troops have so far liberated the occupied cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan and Gubadli, as well as dozens of villages, settlements and strategic heights in the districts of Tartar, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Khojavend, Zangilan, Gubadli and Kalbajar.

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