“We restored justice, international law, our sovereignty and territorial integrity, and then achieved peace,” said President Ilham Aliyev as he addressed a panel session titled “Defining Eurasia's Economic Identity” in Davos, APA's correspondent reports from Davos.
Referring to the peace process with Armenia and the preceding 30 years of conflict, the head of state said that Azerbaijan, as a country and as a nation, had gone through very difficult times. “We lost our territories, and one million people became homeless and internally displaced. But we did not lose hope. We did not lose our determination to restore justice, international law and our sovereignty. It took us 30 years. Thirty years ago, twenty years ago, ten years ago and even now, the behavior of international institutions did not change. We changed. We stopped believing that someone would come and solve our problems for us. All our hopes placed in international mediation completely collapsed. The United Nations Security Council, the highest international body, adopted four resolutions demanding the withdrawal of Armenian troops from our territories. These resolutions remained on paper. The OSCE and other international institutions adopted numerous documents. However, the situation changed only after we took it into our own hands. We did it. We restored justice, international law, our sovereignty and territorial integrity, and then achieved peace,” the President emphasized.
President Ilham Aliyev also noted that for the leader of a country that had suffered for 30 years, stopping at the right time is an extremely responsible and important decision. “We could have continued the conflict. I want to say this openly. But that would have led to endless wars. It would have meant more suffering and more victims. The war would never have ended. Someone had to stop this process, and we decided to stop it. This was a joint decision by the leadership of Armenia and Azerbaijan to close the chapter of war and seize the opportunities for peace,” he said.
