BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr.1
Trend:
If we had wanted, we could have easily entered the territory of Armenia, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said, making a speech at the informal Summit of the Cooperation Council of the Turkic-Speaking States (Turkic Council) held in a video conference format, Trend reports.
“Armenia was provoking us, was counting on a harsh response from us in order to blame us afterwards and try to delay the [Nagorno Karabakh] issue for another 30 years. We did not succumb to the provocation. We acted with restraint, in accordance with all the norms and principles of international law, but Armenia committed a military provocation against us last summer. Our positions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border came under fire. Armenian military units tried to cross our border, and several of our servicemen were killed. We responded, pushed them back but we did not cross the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The military conflict that lasted for several days stopped because we did not intend to wage war on the territory of Armenia," he said.
"However, had we wanted to, we could have easily entered the territory of Armenia. A month later, in August, a new provocation was committed when a sabotage group was sent to Azerbaijan. The leader of the subversive group was detained and testified that he was sent to Azerbaijan to carry out acts of terror – so this was another provocation. Finally, in late September, our military positions and settlements came under artillery fire, and several of our servicemen and civilians were killed. Naturally, we responded adequately, conducted a counter-offensive and punished the enemy. The 44-day Karabakh war resulted in a complete victory for Azerbaijan,” the head of state said.