BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. When there was no gas in Khankendi for one week, there was no-one left in the world who wouldn’t call us, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said during a meeting dedicated to the results of the first quarter of 2022, Trend reports.
"Did anyone, any organization or country raise its voice back then? No! They didn’t care. But when there was no gas in Khankendi for one week, there was no-one left in the world who wouldn’t call us – from America to Europe. First of all, there are countries in Europe where there is no gas. There is no gas there at all. Gas lines were never built there. I don’t want to name those countries. There are also countries where the level of gas supply is 3-5 percent. Is there a humanitarian catastrophe there? They have been without gas for one week, is this a humanitarian catastrophe? Then why wasn’t Nakhchivan a humanitarian catastrophe when it was deprived of gas for 15 years? This is the question. Is there an answer to this question? Yes! Double standards and discrimination. We have now restored gas supply and the Armenians must appreciate it. We have simply shown good will. If we didn't want to, we wouldn't restore it. Who can say anything to us? Did we have to restore it? No! We have restored it and hope that they will also understand that they are citizens of Azerbaijan, that they must and will live under the Azerbaijani flag. The sooner they understand this, the better for them. This is why we did that. We showed humanism. But we have never forgotten that Nakhchivan was left without gas. In 2005, according to an agreement with Iran, we supplied gas from Iran to Nakhchivan, laid a gas line from Astara to the Iranian Astara and are doing swap operations. Since then, Nakhchivan has been supplied with gas from Iran in this manner. But our gas was cut off, our water was cut off," the head of state said.