DM Monitoring
BAKU: Victory befits our people and we will always be victorious, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said addressing the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the Day of Solidarity of World Azerbaijanis and the New Year, local media reported on Friday.
“I want to congratulate all our compatriots on the occasion of this holiday. I want to congratulate all the people of Azerbaijan, first of all, on this historic Victory. The future holds great things in store, a new period begins for our country, a period of construction, a period of development. Days of restoration of our lands await us. This will be a glorious period. Although the enemy has destroyed everything in the occupied and already liberated lands, we will restore all our cities and villages, and create a paradise in the Karabakh region. Our people deserve it. Victory befits our people and we will always be victorious!” Azerbaijani president said.
“My dear brothers and sisters, I wish you a Happy New Year and heartily congratulate you on the Day of Solidarity of World Azerbaijanis. I congratulate all the people of Azerbaijan on the great Victory. On the eve of the New Year, I would like all of us to say the slogan that has led to victory together: Karabakh is Azerbaijan!” the head of state said.
“Azerbaijan defeated Armenia in 44 days and liberated its native lands from occupation. This victory will forever live in the memory of the Azerbaijani people. This is a historic victory. We have restored historical justice,” the head of state said.
“As you know, negotiations had been going on within the Minsk Group for almost 30 years. But those negotiations did not yield any results. As a matter of fact, Armenia simply wanted the talks to drag on indefinitely. There was a process of imitating the talks. When I was elected President of Azerbaijan for the first time in 2003, I stated that my main goal as President was to liberate our lands from occupation. In the early years of my presidency, there were some hopes that this issue could be resolved peacefully. Because I thought that the norms and principles of international law provided a solid foundation for that. I knew that historical justice was on our side. At the same time, the UN Security Council resolutions provided a legal basis for resolving the issue. But I saw over the years that our hopes were diminishing, and the reason for that was Armenia’s activities, policies and steps. Over the years, it became obvious that Armenia was not interested in resolving this issue. Armenia simply wanted to keep our lands under occupation forever, and by participating in the talks it was simply trying to create the impression that a process of negotiations was underway and international mediators were also involved in it. As years passed, our hopes were fading away. Meanwhile, in all of my speeches at almost all international events over the past 17 years I kept saying that the solution of this issue is a priority for us. I was saying that Azerbaijan would never put up with this occupation. I was saying that Azerbaijan would never allow for a second Armenian state to be established in the historical and ancient lands of Azerbaijan.
I was saying that we would never give independence to the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh republic”. There will never be any voting there. I was saying all this, and this position became stronger and stronger over time,” the head of state said.
