Aliyev's Astana theses on de-occupation, logistics and non-alignment

Baku/13.10.22/Turan: On Thursday, at the plenary session of the sixth CICBMA summit in Astana,  President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev  said three theses devoted to the consequences of Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan, the logistical role of Azerbaijan, and the country's peacekeeping efforts in the Non-Aligned Movement.

Aliyev focused on the thirty-year occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia, the end of which was put as a result of a victorious war in the fall of 2020.

He focused on the inaction and connivance of the world community to the aggressor, which  resulted in the destruction of Azerbaijani villages and cities, the expulsion of about a million people, and the killing of thousands of civilians.

“Armenia systematically committed war crimes against the civilian population and military personnel of Azerbaijan. From the first Karabakh war to the present, about 3,900 Azerbaijani citizens are considered missing. Most of them were tortured, killed and buried in mass graves. This year we found mass graves in two villages liberated from occupation.”

Aliyev said that despite the suffering that Armenia brought. Azerbaijan invited it to sign a peace agreement on the basis of mutual recognition of each other's territorial integrity. Speaking about the area of broad regional cooperation, Aliyev focused on the implementation of infrastructure projects that should turn Azerbaijan into a major logistics center. For 9 months of this year, the transit of goods has grown by 65%.

“Azerbaijan is making an important contribution to the development of the East-West and North-South transport corridors. Our country is actively promoting the creation of the Zangezur Corridor, which will become an important part of the Middle Corridor.”

And finally, he announced  with pride the results of Azerbaijan's chairmanship in the Non-Aligned Movement since 2019.

“We are making great efforts to strengthen solidarity within the Non-Aligned Movement, increase its political weight and global influence. To this end, Azerbaijan is actively promoting the idea of institutionalizing the Movement. In this context, the Parliamentary Network and the Youth Organization of the Non-Aligned Movement created on the initiative of Azerbaijan should be noted. In order to exchange views and form the position of the Movement related to the post-COVID world, we proposed to hold a high-level meeting of the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement next year.”—0—