Title changed, details added (first version posted at 15:37)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 8. The people of Azerbaijan united as a fist and fulfilled their historic mission, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Victorious Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev said, speaking to the servicemen following the event organized on the occasion of the Victory Day in Shusha on November 8, Trend reports.
"We only moved forward for 44 days. Prior to Shusha, many of our towns and villages, including Jabrayil, Hadrut, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, Sugovushan, about 300 villages, a part of Lachin and Kalbajar, were liberated on the battlefield. The liberation of Shusha broke the back of the Armenian army. As a matter of fact, Armenia was in panic from the first days of the war. In some cases, it was gripped by panic and hysteria. This is exactly why there were more than 10,000 deserters in the Armenian army, according to their own admission. There was not a single deserter in the Azerbaijan Army. This indicates the high moral qualities of our people. Our soldiers were prepared to die. They fought under the slogan “we would rather die than retreat”. There wasn’t a single deserter. This is true heroism of our people. It goes to show that such a wonderful young generation has grown up, many of whom had never even seen Karabakh and Zangazur. They were approaching this sacred land they had only seen on television and photographs and heard about from their parents and elders. However, they came here and fulfilled the historic mission of our people with dignity.
The road to victory was turbulent and difficult. Defeat in the first Karabakh war had dealt a severe moral blow to our nation. The reasons for that defeat are clear. At that time, anti-national elements seized power, were fighting for power. They practically surrendered the impregnable fortress of Shusha to Armenia, to the Armenians in order to come to power, and this is exactly what happened. The Popular Front-Musavat tandem did come to power one month after Shusha and Lachin were occupied. They came to power on the heels of this tragedy, on the heels bloodshed, national disgrace, and in the one year they stayed in power, they devastated the whole country, instigated a civil war and took their own soldiers prisoner. The lands were being lost, but they engaged in looting and robbery. They mobilized all their efforts to reinforce their power.
In other words, defeat in the first Karabakh war was inevitable. Because an anti-national government can’t win the war. Throughout the years of occupation, Armenia’s official propaganda and the media resources of their patrons attempted to circulate an idea in the world and, at the same time, with the people of Azerbaijan that Azerbaijan could never restore its territorial integrity through war. It would be enough to look at the speeches of representatives of international organizations and officials of countries dealing with this issue. They have said so many times that there is no military solution to this war, to this conflict. First of all, they tried to convince us of that. Secondly, they tried to prevent us from resolving the issue by military means. Of course, we also tried to resolve this issue peacefully, but resolve it. But we saw that the tactic of negotiations was leading to the issue being frozen, and, of course, we could never agree to that.
Finally, the people of Azerbaijan united as a fist and fulfilled their historic mission. The road to war has taken many directions. First of all, we had to equip our army with the necessary weapons and hardware ourselves. A strong economy was also necessary for this. When Azerbaijan regained independence, our financial and economic situation was extremely difficult. Therefore, building a strong economy was considered an important factor in winning the war, and we did that. Our economy has strengthened, we are living at our own expense, we don't need anyone's help, we don't depend on anyone, we are building our own life to the best of our abilities, and we are doing well," the head of state said.