Azerbaijani president: Then leadership of Azerbaijan – the PFPA-Musavat tandem – allowed for occupation of our lands

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 11

Trend:

In the early 1990s, the then leadership of Azerbaijan – the PFPA-Musavat tandem – allowed for the occupation of our lands, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview to Azerbaijan Television following a ceremony at Baku Deep Water Jackets Plant named after Heydar Aliyev to send a jacket of Garabakh field offshore, Trend reports.

“Azerbaijan signed contracts with foreign partners on a number of fields, but not all of them were effective. The implementation of many of them has already been stopped, their execution has been terminated and the drilled wells did not meet our expectations. As for the development of the Garabagh field, I want to say again that there was always confidence that there is great potential here, there are large reserves of oil and gas in the field. But, as I said, three wells were drilled in the 1990s, foreign partners stated that further investment would be ineffective and the Garabagh field was abandoned. As a matter of fact, we did not lose anything because Azerbaijan did not undertake any financial obligations during that exploration period. On the contrary, even an unsuccessful result is also a result, as it gave us additional geological data,” Azerbaijani president said.

President Ilham Aliyev said that today, Azerbaijan is returning to the once abandoned Garabagh field – in the 1990s – and this giant jacket is a clear proof of that.

“At the same time, in the early 1990s, the then leadership of Azerbaijan – the PFPA-Musavat tandem – allowed for the occupation of our lands. In other words, as a result of their betrayal, treachery and desertion, our lands were occupied. If such an analogy can be drawn at all, Azerbaijan left Karabakh. In 2016, we recovered a part of our lands, drove the occupiers from these lands, life returned to these territories, our citizens returned there, Azerbaijan returned there. I am sure that Azerbaijan will return to its native lands, to the Karabakh land. Our territorial integrity will be fully restored. Just as we are returning to the once abandoned Garabagh field today, we will return to our native Karabakh land in the same manner. Karabakh is ours, Karabakh is Azerbaijan!” the head of state said.