BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 22. I am confident that as a result of our efforts in the post-war period and as a result of our subsequent efforts, we will get rid of the territorial claims of Armenia and Armenians of the world against Azerbaijan, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said while delivering a speech at the 5th Congress of World Azerbaijanis in Shusha on April 22, Trend reports.
”The vast majority of those martyred in the second Karabakh war were members of the younger generation. None of them had been to Karabakh, they had never seen this land, but the national spirit, justice and love of the country living in their hearts led them to death. We showed the whole world how to fight in the 21st century, how to fight with dignity, how to fight in modern ways, and in a matter of 44 days the Armenian army was completely destroyed. The cost of Armenia's destroyed weapons, equipment and equipment captured as booty is at least $4-5 billion. It is also another matter where such a poor country could get this money, but there is almost no Armenian army now.
During the war, there were mass desertions in the Armenian army. According to their own sources, there were 10,000 deserters in the Armenian army. There were no deserters in the Azerbaijani Army. This is the greatness of our people, the confidence of our people in victory, the unity of the people and government, and the unity of Azerbaijanis all over the world. I know that you and millions of other Azerbaijanis living abroad were closely following the course of the war in your countries. At the same time, in your communications, comments on social networks and other resources you conveyed the true voice of Azerbaijan to the public. That is still necessary today. There is still a need for that today, because even though the war is over, the territorial claims against us are not over yet. I am sure that this will end. I am confident that as a result of our efforts in the post-war period and as a result of our subsequent efforts, we will get rid of the territorial claims of Armenia and Armenians of the world against Azerbaijan.
But there are still such claims today, and we must be prepared for that. During the war, we liberated more than 300 towns and villages on the battlefield in a matter of 44 days. This is why Armenia was forced to sign an act of capitulation in the early hours of 10 November. It was after we had liberated Shusha on 8 November that the Armenian leadership finally realized that continuing the war would cost them even more dearly. However, if they had listened to my words in the first days of the war and given us the schedule of their withdrawal from the occupied territories, the war could have stopped earlier. During the war, I repeatedly appealed to the people of Azerbaijan, saying that the Armenian leadership should provide us with a timetable of when it would vacate our lands, and as soon as that happened we would stop the war. And this is exactly what happened. But they were forced to do so. In 44 days, the Armenian army and the Armenian state were completely destroyed and found themselves on the brink of a precipice. They had to sign an act of capitulation on 10 November, and we returned Aghdam, Kalbajar and Lachin districts without a single shot being fired. Thus, we resolved the war by military and political means. Let me say this again – we did that alone, without any mediators,” said the head of state.