Issue of residence of Karabakh Armenians is internal affair of Azerbaijan

Baku/05.10.22/Turan: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev expressed some optimism about the peace process with Armenia.

"We are somewhat optimistic about the peace process. A few days ago, a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia took place, this is the first such a meeting to prepare a text of the peace treaty. We hope that this will not take much time," Aliyev said on October 5, speaking at the National Urban Planning Forum in the city of Aghdam.

At the same time, he recalled Armenia's tactics to evade negotiations.

“We know the tactics that Armenia usually uses when it does not want to negotiate, such as during the negotiations on the Karabakh conflict which lasted 28 years. If this continues, there will be no peace. And if Armenia goes for it, then it will make another serious mistake. They underestimated us, our will, the potential of the Azerbaijani people and paid a high price for this," Aliyev said.

Azerbaijan, for its part, is ready to take steps to normalize relations with Armenia and open a "new page in the peace."

Touching upon the issue of the Armenian population of Karabakh, he said that Azerbaijan considers this to be its internal affair and does not intend to discuss it with external forces.

"The Armenian population living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan are our citizens, and we will not discuss with any international center how to improve their lives," Aliyev said.

Touching upon the restoration of the liberated territories, he stated that the international community turned a blind eye to the humanitarian catastrophe of the Azerbaijani population.

"The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs visited the occupied territories many times, witnessing the monstrous devastation of cities and villages, saw the illegal settlement of our territories by Armenians and did not condemn Armenia.

Over 27 years of the so-called activity of the OSCE Minsk Group, not a single word of condemnation has been said against Armenia. Therefore, we cannot support the attempts to resume the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group, because they have not fulfilled their mandate,” Aliyev continued.

"Since Azerbaijan independently restored the international law and implemented the resolutions of the UN Security Council, we no longer need mediation," the head of state stressed.

As for the restoration of the liberated territories, Aliyev stated that large-scale infrastructure projects are being implemented there.

"You saw the Fuzuli international airport, it was built in eight months. This month we plan to open the Zangilan International airport, and soon the Karabakh region will become the driving force of the country's economy. The liberated territories have a significant renewable energy potential, which is nearly 10,000 MW. -06B-