President Aliyev: Armenia occupied Azerbaijani lands and continues this occupation (UPDATE)

Details added (first version posted on 16:34)

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 2

Trend:

Army building is the priority of Azerbaijan's policy and it is natural, as the country is in a state of war, the war hasn't ended yet, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said.

He made the remarks during the meeting with the personnel of a military unit in Azerbaijan's Terter district.

"The ceasefire regime was established in 1994. Nevertheless, Armenia constantly grossly violates the ceasefire," said the president.

President Aliyev noted that when the international pressure on Armenia over the conflict increases, it even more violates the ceasefire and stages armed provocations.

"The international community has already been fully informed about the conflict," Azerbaijan's president added. "Over these years, we managed to prove to the whole world that we are the aggrieved party."

"Armenia - the aggressor, has committed genocide against the Azerbaijani people, occupied our lands and continues this occupation," said President Aliyev. "The [OSCE] Minsk Group co-chairs, who are engaged in this issue, have repeatedly said in recent times that the status quo is unacceptable and should be changed."

It means that the occupation should be ended, said President Aliyev.

"It is a signal directly addressed to Armenia," said the president. "Therefore, and also when Armenians see that Azerbaijan gains more support worldwide, they periodically stage armed provocations in order to disrupt the negotiations and continue the policy of occupation. We witnessed this in the recent past. They attacked our positions in the summer of 2014. Our army gave an adequate response that time as well."

In November of the same year, after certain hopes emerged in the negotiations, Armenia, as it said, held large-scale exercises in Aghdam district with participation of the personnel consisting of 47,000 people, said the president, adding that it was a purely provocative move.

"The Azerbaijani side showed high restraint for several days. But afterwards, two military helicopters of Armenia attacked our positions," said Ilham Aliyev. "Azerbaijani army destroyed one of them. Taking the advantage of this, Armenia accused us and the negotiation process came to the deadlock again."

Using this as a reason, they began to accuse Azerbaijan of violating the ceasefire, said Ilham Aliyev, adding that the goal was clear: to disrupt the talks again and to continue the occupation policy.