Azerbaijan to Continue to İncrease İts Military Power - Ilham Aliyev

Baku / 01/01/19 / Turan: President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in the New Year's greeting to the people called the last 2018 year successful for the country.

In his view, Azerbaijan has strengthened its international position and raised relations with neighboring countries to an even higher level.

"Our joint work with neighboring states in political, economic and other areas further enhances stability in the region," Aliyev said.

According to the head of state, Azerbaijan has further strengthened ties with the European Union. "The Partnership Priorities document signed between the European Union and Azerbaijan this year is evidence of the very high level of these relations. The document reflects very clear thoughts about the territorial integrity, sovereignty of our country, the inviolability of our borders, which once again shows the correct position of the European Union in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh issue," Aliyev continued.

Aliyev called the signing of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea a "historic achievement".

In 2018, Azerbaijan achieved a serious position in resolving the conflict. "As you know, the regime of the criminal, corrupt junta, which usurped power in Armenia for 20 years, has fallen, and this is a complete fiasco of the aggressive policy pursued by Armenia against Azerbaijan," Aliyev said.

Azerbaijan isolated Armenia from all regional and international projects, which contributed to the economic decline in this country.

"I believe that today a new situation is emerging to resolve the conflict. I hope that in 2019 there can be progress in this area," said Aliyev.

At the same time, he stressed that a powerful military potential is the main factor for resolving the conflict. "Along with this, of course, I think that our strong military potential is a key factor for the resolution of the conflict. In recent years, we have significantly enhanced our military power. Today, the Azerbaijani army is among the strongest armies in the world. This year's military parade in our country shows our strength, the great potential of strong army. The Azerbaijani army has the most modern weapons and equipment, a very high combat potential, and we proved this again this year. The Azerbaijani army has carried out a successful operation in the Nakhchivan direction of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border and is now in control of 11,000 hectares of land. The takeover of strategic heights enables us to exercise full control over important communications and routes passing through Armenia."

Azerbaijan will continue to increase its military power.

"We want to settle the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by peaceful means and our participation in the talks is a clear proof of this. But everyone knows and should know that the military factor plays a special role in resolving the conflict, and we will continue to build up our military power, "said Aliyev.

This year a lot of work has been done for the internally displaced people. For 5,800 families of displaced persons, new houses and apartments were built, which were transferred to them. This is a record figure in recent years. The families of martyrs and the disabled of the Karabakh war have been provided 626 apartments. "We will continue this policy next year," Aliyev said.

He also spoke about indicators of economic growth.

Speaking about the events of 2018, Aliyev also pointed out the opening of the Southern Gas Corridor and the Alat sea trade port.

Recalling that a presidential election was held in 2018, Aliyev said his goal is to build a strong Azerbaijani state. -06B--