BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 17
Trend:
We are committed to the fundamental principles, called the Madrid principles because they are in our interests, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in an interview to Turkish NTV TV channel, Trend reports.
“Armenia has already stated that it does not accept these principles. According to the information provided to me, the prime minister of Armenia made a statement yesterday or the day before that they were unacceptable for them. So who is disrupting the process of negotiations? Armenia!” the head of state said.
"Now we are liberating our lands. We are already hoisting our flag on the mountains that surround our cities, we are hoisting them on buildings located in our cities, we are on the victory march. Demonstrating adherence to fundamental principles under these circumstances requires a lot of political will and responsibility. As you have already noted, it is indicated there that five districts are to be returned at the first stage, two more districts at the second and then the future of Nagorno-Karabakh will be discussed. Azerbaijani IDPs should return to Nagorno-Karabakh, including Shusha, because Azerbaijanis accounted for 98 percent of the population of Shusha. They should return to Khankandi, and after that the Azerbaijani and Armenian population should live there together, just like in other parts of Azerbaijan, in Baku and other cities. Our position is this. The position of Armenia is to drive the Azerbaijanis out of there, as they have already done, then not to allow the Azerbaijanis to return, to consolidate the results of the policy of ethnic cleansing there, to raze our historical, religious and cultural monuments to the ground, to erase the cultural heritage of Azerbaijanis, and then to Armenianize these lands. This is their approach and this is ours,” Azerbaijani president said.