BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 1. I hope that from now on Armenia, while pursuing its policies, will continue to take into account the new realities created in the South Caucasus, said President Ilham Aliyev in his address on the occasion of the World Azerbaijanis Solidarity Day and New Year, Trend reports.
"Many important developments took place in 2024. The most important of them was the liberation of four villages of Gazakh district, which were occupied in the early 1990s. We never took a step back from our position regarding these villages. We never forgot about these villages. The restoration of our territorial integrity and sovereignty simply had its own logic. We deal with everything, all the issues with confidence and consistency. At the first stage, we liberated a large part of Karabakh and East Zangezur from the occupiers in the Patriotic War in 2020. The part that remained under occupation was liberated from the occupiers through the anti-terror operation last year, and Azerbaijan restored its state sovereignty. This year, we regained four villages of Gazakh district without a single shot being fired, through political means. But it is also true that if the events that have occurred in Azerbaijan-Armenia relations over the past four years had not taken place, Armenia, of course, would never have voluntarily returned these villages to us. They were forced to do it. They did this realizing our political and military power, and I hope that from now on Armenia, while pursuing its policies, will continue to take into account the new realities created in the South Caucasus and, at the same time, in the world. We have created the new realities in the South Caucasus. The Patriotic War has created these realities. The restoration of our state sovereignty further strengthened these realities, and we reaffirmed the new realities we created in the South Caucasus on the diplomatic, international and political levels. The whole world has accepted the new realities," President Ilham Aliyev said.