On April 12, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev held a meeting on the results of the first quarter of this year. He spoke about the general situation in the country, as well as the latest tensions in Karabakh. Aliyev also touched upon the disruption of gas supply to Karabakh in March, which Armenians blamed on Azerbaijani authorities.
What did Ilham Aliyev say about Karabakh:
• “We have restored gas and Armenians must appreciate it. If we didn’t want to, we wouldn’t restore it. Who can tell us anything? We owed them to restore it? No! We have restored, and we hope that they will also understand that they are citizens of Azerbaijan, and they must and will live under the Azerbaijani flag. The sooner they understand this, the better for them.”
• “We will rebuild everything on our own. I said that we will build both Karabakh and Zangazur as exemplary regions. Azerbaijani citizens will live there comfortably and prosperously. It will be an example for the world.”
• “The Kalbajar-Lachin highway and a 4-kilometer tunnel are under construction. A highway is being built from Khudafarin to Gubadli and from there to Lachin. One of the most important roads is the Togana-Kalbajar highway. Because after the construction of this road and the 12-kilometer tunnel, there will be no need to cross the Murov Pass, we will pass through a comfortable tunnel.”
• “If Armenia does not give us access to Zangazur corridor, it will lose and, first of all, violate the November 10 Declaration. The November 10 Declaration clearly states that there must be a connection between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and this is Armenia’s commitment. If it does not want to fulfill his obligation, then we will not be responsible for fulfilling any obligation.”
• “The final communiqué [of the tripartite meeting in Brussels on April 6 mediated by EU Council President] did not contain the word ‘Nagorno-Karabakh’ and this is natural. Because Azerbaijan protested against it, and there is no word ‘conflict’ because there is no conflict anymore. The conflict has been resolved.”
• “Although the mandate given to the Minsk Group to resolve the conflict is de jure in force, it can already be considered invalid de facto. During the post-war period, before the last Russian-Ukrainian war, we expressed our views on this issue. Our foreign minister has met with the Minsk Group co-chairs at various international events, and we said to them, “Tell us what you want to do now?”. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has now been resolved, there is no and will not be an administrative territory called Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Tell us what you want to do, let us know, and then we will state our position. For more than a year now, we have not received any proposals on this issue.”
• “Azerbaijan has made a proposal consisting of five principles to normalize relations between the two countries, and the Armenian side welcomed this proposal. These statements had already been made before the Brussels meeting. At the meeting in Brussels, I wanted to clarify this for myself and I did. Armenia accepts the five principles. So the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is recognized and Armenia renounces its territorial claims to Azerbaijan. In other words, if it accepts the five principles – as it was confirmed at the April meeting – then these are part of these five principles. This is a very positive thing, and I think that it is a key condition for the normalization of bilateral relations.”
