Minister: Azerbaijan’s response to enemy will be devastating

Response to another provocation of the enemy would be devastating and destructive, Azerbaijan's Minister of Defense, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov said during his visit to the front area and meeting with personnel serving on the frontline.

The minister was visiting the frontal zone on the instruction of the President of Azerbaijan, Supreme Сommander of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev.

Speaking to the staff Hasanov said that despite the efforts of Azerbaijan, the military-political leadership of Armenia has not taken any positive action to resolve the conflict.

“The negotiations fail to make progress due to the unconstructive position of the enemy, and the international law is being violated,” he said.

As President Ilham Aliyev had noted, Armenia once again uses its vile tactics and wants to remove the issue from the international agenda, trying to play for time. “We will not allow this – the conflict must be resolved soon,” stressed.

Defense Minister noted that the enemy continues to increase the provocations on the front line, whilst the Azerbaijani army resolutely prevents them, and a more stringent response will be given to the Armenian provocations.

The minister also touched upon the Russian operational-tactical missile complexes Iskander-M shown at a military parade in Armenia on September 21.

“We are fully informed about the tactical and technical characteristics Zakir Hasanov of the missiles demonstrated by Armenia. It has not changed the military balance in the region in favor of the enemy – we achieved advantage in all directions,” Hasanov mentioned.

Azerbaijani Armed Forces can use thousands of rockets and weapons in response to several devices of the enemy, shooting down those missiles, and destroying the military infrastructure of Armenia at any distance, the minister noted. “The threat of Armenians regarding the use of these missiles is just a fiction."

Hasanov stressed that the April fighting should have become a lesson for the enemy, but Armenia did not draw conclusions from this blow. “Response to another provocation of the enemy would be devastating and destructive, we will completely destroy him,” minister assured.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.