President Aliyev: April victory demonstrated power of state, people, army

President Ilham Aliyev received a group of servicemen on March 31 on the anniversary of the April victory of the Azerbaijani army.

President Ilham Aliyev received a group of servicemen on March 31 on the anniversary of the April victory of the Azerbaijani army.

Making a speech the head of state said that Azerbaijani servicemen showed heroism in April battles in 2016.

“The April battles are our glorious military victory, a victory that demonstrates the might of our state, people and army. The Azerbaijani flag flies on the territories of Fizuli, Jabrayil and Agdara regions which have been liberated from occupation as a result of the April battles. These battles testify that the Azerbaijani people and state will never put up with the occupation and will restore the territorial integrity of our country at any cost,” he said.

President Aliyev noted that the April fighting also demonstrated the professionalism of Azerbaijan’s army.

“After a counteroffensive operation launched from an unfavorable position, our army took over strategic positions. Today, these strategic heights and positions liberated from occupation allow us the opportunity to fully control the situation on the contact line and take the necessary measures.

The head of state said that during the April battles, Armenia appealed to international organizations and countries to stop the fighting as soon as possible. Then they began to blame some countries for not coming to their rescue. “The Nagorno-Karabakh issue is our internal issue. NagornoKarabakh is recognized by the whole world and the Minsk Group co-chairing countries as an integral part of Azerbaijan. The events that are occurring and may occur in Nagorno-Karabakh and on all our occupied lands are our internal affair. No international organization or country can interfere in our internal affairs,” he stressed.

The President said that during the April battles, Azerbaijan demonstrated only a small fraction of its capabilities.

"This once again shows that the April battles were a provocation from Armenia. Today, some people are putting forward different theories and assumptions that Azerbaijan planned to conduct an operation that was subsequently suspended and so on. First, we did what we wanted to do. We achieved the goals we faced in a counteroffensive operation. Today, military and international experts know that the strategic positions we won have completely changed the situation. If we had intended to conduct a largescale operation during the April battles, we would have used our military potential," he said.

Armenia has been creating myths about its army for many years, arguing that it has a powerful army that won a great victory, President Aliyev emphasized.

“We know only too well what happened in the early 1990s. At that time, there were chaos and anarchy in Azerbaijan,” he said. “After the occupation of Shusha and Lachin in 1992 and of Kalbajar in April 1993, a geographical connection appeared between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. At that time, we lost our strategic positions. This was a betrayal of the state and people. Armenia, the Armenians and their patrons took advantage of this situation and occupied our lands using external support and with outside interference. This is history. We know this history, and the younger generation also needs to know it for what it is.”

The settlement of the ArmeniaAzerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is, as always, a priority issue for us, according to the head of state.

President Aliyev said that today, a new situation has evolved both in the negotiations and in the region as a whole.

“Although Armenia is trying to evade negotiations, it will not succeed in doing that. No matter how hard it may try, it will have to return to the negotiations, as they are well aware of the direction in which the situation will develop if there are no negotiations,” he said.

“Of course, after the April battles our position at the negotiating table has become even stronger, and this was clearly seen by the entire international community. Of course, they knew that the Azerbaijani state could resolve the NagornoKarabakh problem in any way. The mediators dealing with this issue have repeatedly stated – and such statements were made recently as well – that the status quo is unacceptable and must be changed. We support this. The change in the status quo would mean an end to the occupation because the status quo should be changed by Armenia. After they withdraw the occupying forces from our lands, the status quo will change and the basis for peace will appear,” he noted.

President Aliyev went on adding that during and after these battles, we witnessed the heroism of our people. Armenia, as always, opens fire on the civilian population when it suffers defeat on the battlefield. This is what happened this time as well. The houses of hundreds of our villagers were destroyed and several civilians were killed. But our people living in places near the line of contact showed great courage. No-one moved away. They did not leave their homes and villages.

“We will return to the occupied lands. This is our main task. The flag of Azerbaijan will wave in all our occupied lands, just as it does today on the territories liberated last year,” he said. Escalation of the Karabakh conflict

Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions of Azerbaijan are under the control of the Armenian military and separatists since a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended in 1994. Negotiations lasting for over 20 years have brought little progress in resolving the conflict, though a fragile truce has been in place.

One of the most tragic conflicts in the history of the 20th century and affected the destiny of millions again aggravated on April 2 after the Armenian military units in the occupied lands started shelling Azerbaijan’s positions.

To protect civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched counter attacks and as a result, the Azerbaijani troops retook hills around the village of Talish, as well as Seysulan settlement, and also took over Leletepe hill located in the direction of Fizuli region.

With the assistance of Moscow on April 5, the parties agreed to suspend hostilities, but violations on the contact line continued until May 16. On this day, first meeting between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia - Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan from the beginning of the escalation of the situation in Karabakh, was held in Vienna for the settlement of the NagornoKarabakh conflict with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (Russia, France, the U.S.)

During the meeting the presidents agreed to reduce the risk of further violence, the presidents also agreed to finalize in the shortest possible time an OSCE investigative mechanism. The presidents also agreed to the expansion of the existing Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office.