BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 29. What happened after the war demonstrates that we don’t have any bad intentions, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said addressing the international conference under the motto “South Caucasus: Development and Cooperation”, Trend reports.
"Armenians who live in Karabakh, we consider them as our citizens and we hope that they will also soon understand that living as citizens of Azerbaijan they will have all rights and their security will be protected. Azerbaijan, unlike Armenia, is a multiethnic country and all ethnic groups who live here live in peace and dignity, including Armenians. We have an Armenian minority and there was never any issue with that respect. But, of course, for that, there should be put an end to Azerbaijanofobic propaganda in Armenia. Demonizing Azerbaijanis, creating mythology about us will not serve the cause of peace. Plus, what happened after the war demonstrates that we don’t have any bad intentions. We want peace. We want recognition of our territorial integrity and living standards in Azerbaijan are much higher than in Armenia, not to mention in Russian controlled Karabakh, temporary controlled by Russian peacekeepers. Therefore, I think that understanding will come and we already get some messages from Armenians in Karabakh. Very positive messages. We already started some preliminary contacts on different levels. I don’t want to go much in details, but it has already started and this once again demonstrates our intention. They can be part of the rapid economic development, they can feel themselves much more safe, secure and comfortably within the unified Azerbaijani state, but they need to put down the separatist trends and separatist aspirations. They also need to understand the reality. They need to look at the map. They need to see the geography and they need to understand that hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis will return within a visible future to Kalbajar, Lachin, Shush and Aghdam and they have to live in this environment. They have to live like neighbors, put down hostility, isolate separatists, bring separatists to justice and then, I think, they will see the benefit also," the head of state said.