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Head of state: "The statement signed on 10 November should be the basis for future activities"

08 January 2021 12:10 (UTC +04:00)

"Peacekeeping forces. They have a certain function there. This function was established on 10 November. Although they are now engaged in humanitarian work there and although this function was not established in the statement signed on 10 November, we are turning a blind eye to that, so to speak. Why? Because we understand that people live there, we understand that winter has come and the weather is cold. Some work must be done there so that this winter does not create problems for the Armenians living there. This is why we have created this opportunity. Most of the cargo goes there through Azerbaijan now. We gave them this opportunity. Cargoes go to Barda by rail and then taken to Nagorno-Karabakh by automobiles. Of course, we could have denied them this opportunity," said President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at meeting in a video format on the results of 2020, APA reports.

"Armenia cut off our water for 30 years and left 100,000 hectares of land without water even though both Sarsang and Sugovushan reservoirs were built on the initiative of great leader Heydar Aliyev and as a result of his activities back then. Armenia cut off our water. But let me repeat that we must never fall to their level. The people living in Nagorno-Karabakh today are our citizens. As I have said, they will see that they will live better under Azerbaijan’s leadership. This is why we have created these opportunities for them. Otherwise, it is very difficult to transport cargo there via the Lachin corridor. We have taken other steps to carry out humanitarian work there. Let me reiterate that although the document signed on 10 November does not stipulate this, we have created these opportunities. It shows how big our hearts are. I believe that the statement signed on 10 November should be the basis for future activities. No other document has been signed apart from this statement.

At the same time, we have allowed Armenian citizens to use the roads passing through our territory and the liberated lands – the roads passing through Gubadli and Zangilan districts. They should appreciate that. It is our land. We understand that the road passes through there. In Soviet times, borders were not very relevant and the Armenian population living there probably did not know that this is the territory of Azerbaijan. Who could have told them that this is the territory of Azerbaijan. They always thought that this was the territory of Armenia. And now when they realized that this is Azerbaijani territory and that Azerbaijani border guards have arrived and been deployed there, they have experienced some stress, of course. But again, I ordered that no-one should be hurt. Explain to them that this is our place, our land, and let them go. We gave them time. The Armenian side asked us to give them time until 2 January. And we did. We could have refused. I could have sent a military unit there and then see what would happen to them. Did we do that? No! But they would have done that. When they occupied Kalbajar, they did not give us any time at all. Our citizens had to cross the Murov and Omar gorges barefooted. Many froze to death there. Did they give us time?" noted the head of state