BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 8
Trend:
The Nagorno Karabakh conflict has been resolved by us unilaterally, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said receiving Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Yousef Bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen, Trend reports.
“The war which lasted 44 days, put an end to occupation of Azerbaijani lands which lasted for 30 years and led to suffering of more than a million of Azerbaijanis and a total devastation of our cities and villages. Now when foreign journalists and diplomats are visiting the liberated territories, they can see that Armenians destroyed everything. All the cities, all the villages historical, religious sights, mosques, cemeteries have been demolished. And this is a reflection of the Islamophobia, Azerbaijanophobia, vandalism, because as I said many times our cities have been demolished not during the first Karabakh war but after, during the times of occupation. That was a deliberate policy to erase all Azerbaijani and Islamic heritage from these historical lands of Azerbaijan, and to change the origin of those lands. I know that ambassadors, members of the Contact Group on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement visited the occupied territories recently and they have seen it with their own eyes. They made public statements. We are very grateful for that. Now we want the whole world to see it and to realize that what we have done was a just cause, based on international law, on UN charter, on our right for self-defense, and was based on justice. So, we restored justice. The aggressor was thrown away from our lands, and now it’s a time to restore. But it will take time, of course, because the biggest problem is mines. After war stopped we had already dozens of casualties, including those who have been killed by the mines and Armenia did not give us a map of mines. So, this is another war crime, because it is an obligation to do it. But they continue this policy against Azerbaijanis even after the war already stopped for many months. But we will do everything what is needed, demining process is going. Already we are planning for reconstruction, master plans of the cities, of villages being already in the phase of preparation and, of course, we want our brothers from Islamic World to come to see to visit and to see what they have done to our historical heritage and to see the process of reconstruction. And of course, I will be also very glad to see you sometimes in the future after we start already the process of reconstruction,” the head of state said.