Prezident İlham Əliyev.
France failed to act as honest mediator, there'll be no autonomy in Karabakh - I. aLiyev
Baku/29.09.21/TURAN: A meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in New York might signalize the beginning of the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, President Ilham Aliyev said this in an interview with the French TV channel France 24 on Tuesday, September 28.
Azerbaijan holds to maintain high-level contacts with Armenia; on the contrary, it believes that such contacts will enable them to get answers to their questions. This is how Aliyev answered the question if he has contacts with the Prime Minister of Armenia.
Does Azerbaijan lay claims to the territory of modern Armenia?
Aliyev gave a negative answer to this question. "I mean that in 1920 the Soviet government endowed Armenia with our historical territory – Zangezur. When it comes to this, I did not mean territorial claims. We will return there not by tanks but when a peace treaty is signed," Aliyev said.,
Is Baku ready to give autonomy to Karabakh? To this, Aliyev replied that there were no grounds for this. "Why might anyone think that a second Armenian state should be created on the territory of Azerbaijan? We were ready to give autonomy and self-government to local Armenians, however, they rejected our proposal demanding independence. Now that the conflict is over, they are talking about autonomy. This is not on our agenda," Aliyev said.
France criticized Azerbaijan's actions during the war, and now Paris goes on criticizing Azerbaijan calling for the withdrawal of forces from the territory of Armenia. Can Azerbaijan consider France as non-biased mediator?
Azerbaijan has always maintained strong economic ties with France and Baku hoped that Paris would be an honest mediator as a co-chair of the Minsk Group. However, this did not happen. "The role of the Armenian Diaspora in France and its ability to influence decisions is well known. Therefore, France did not take a neutral position, it took the side of Armenia," Aliyev said.
Is Azerbaijan ready to hand over the Armenian prisoners? To this, Aliyev said that all those captured during the war have already been returned. As for those who are being talked about by international organizations, these are the military penetrating the territory of Azerbaijan after the conclusion of the truce. "They are responsible for deaths of four Azerbaijani military. Those pure from any crimes were also returned while the perpetrators were convicted. These persons cannot be considered prisoners of war, because they were detained after November 10," Aliyev said. -02D-
Politics
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Armenia is not against the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, but does not consider it appropriate to discuss this issue now. "In the context of peace, we consider it possible to make a decision on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. When peace is an established fact, the existence of such a format may raise questions," Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference today. "The whole question is about the timing, we need to understand how effectively and correctly to turn such topics into a subject of discussion right now," the Armenian Prime Minister added.
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He expressed his willingness to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the border between the two countries. "A meeting with Ilham Aliyev could take place at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. I am open to such a format," Pashinyan said at a press conference today. According to Pashinyan, Armenia recently presented another proposal for a peace treaty to Azerbaijan.
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On August 30, at approximately 22:55, the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant in Metsamor was disconnected from the country's power grid, as reported by the Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure. The shutdown was caused by a lightning strike, which triggered the plant's safety systems to switch the station to a safe shutdown mode. Currently, the plant's staff is working on restarting the facility.
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