Participants of the rally in Baku demanded soon release of the Karabakh

Baku / 09.09.18 / Turan: Several thousand people took part in the rally in Baku demanding the liberation of the occupied lands of Azerbaijan and restoring the territorial integrity of the country. The rally was organized by the recently established public committee "Karabakh". Opening the rally, the head of the Karabakh Liberation Organization(KLO), Akif Nagi, stated that the goal of the action is to bring to the highest level public activity for the liberation of Karabakh. "The authorities and the opposition should consolidate in the Karabakh issue. We must demonstrate the integral will of society and demand from the government to take radical steps to liberate the occupied territories," Nagi said.

Head of the Center for Security Studies, former intelligence officer Ilham Ismail said that the government should report on what it did to liberate the occupied territories over 25 years in power. According to him, no real work has been done for this time, and the authorities only imitated the activities to solve the problem. "You can monopolize everything. But you cannot monopolize the Karabakh issue and solve it secretly from the people," Ismail said. He pointed to the inadequacy of the allegations of Russia's assistance in the liberation of the occupied territories. "We are fed with illusions that Russia will punish Armenia, and return seven regions. But when you look at the sources of this information, it turns out that after the liberation of seven regions, Karabakh must become independent. Stop deceiving the people saying that Russia will return our regions," Ismail said.

Former Interior Minister, Iskender Hamidov, said that it is possible to liberate the occupied territories only by war.

Chairman of the "Classic" party of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, Mirmahmud Miralioglu, stated that "the government either must resolve the Karabakh conflict, or resign." Veteran of the Karabakh War, former commander of a large unit, Colonel Khatai Bakhyshov said that the participants in the war are ready to fulfill the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to liberate the occupied territories. "We do not want to leave this problem to the next generation," said Bakhyshov.

In the speeches of the participants of the meeting, the sounded the idea that the successes of the Azerbaijani army in 2016 showed its ability to liberate the occupied territories.

The resolution of the rally, read by the leader of the People's Party, Panah Huseyn, calls on the authorities to launch an antiterrorist operation to liberate Azerbaijani territories from occupants and terrorists, carry out political reforms, take real measures to combat corruption, and strengthen social protection for veterans and families of martyrs. It also calls on international organizations and the OSCE Minsk Group to consider it not permissible to discuss settlement issues that do not envisage the full restoration of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The slogans "Start an anti-terrorist operation in Karabakh!", "Liberation of Karabakh!", "Return of IDPs to their native places!", "No to double standards of international organizations", "Either Karabakh, or death" were raised. Participants of the action periodically chanted slogans "Resign!", "Either Karabakh, or death!"

The "Karabakh" Committee was established this summer to continuously maintain public attention to the Karabakh conflict through mass actions, scientific conferences, exhibitions, etc. It includes 17 public associations and movements, including the Karabakh Liberation Organization, the parties of the "Classic" Popular Front, the Nationalist Action, Civil Solidarity, the Islamic Party, the White Party, the National Democratic Party, the Organization of Karabakh Veterans and others, and individually 13 veterans of the Karabakh war. -06C--