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-