The people of Azerbaijan are celebrating the second anniversary of their victory over Armenia and its supporters. Two years ago, the Azerbaijani Army liberated the Pearl of Karabakh Shusha and Karabakh as a whole, Eastern Zangazur, from occupation and showed how brave, warlike our people are, ready to die for their homeland and land. The Azerbaijani soldier climbed the impregnable fortress-like Shusha with light weapons and inflicted a heavy blow on the Armenians who did not expect us to liberate the city from the occupation so soon.
Thus, under the leadership of the victorious Supreme Commander-in-chief, Azerbaijani Army realized what international organizations could not do for 30 years in a short time. The new system of international relations established after the Second World War and the new geopolitical configuration environment formed in 1991 manifested itself in such cases as “freezing” and “indirect participation of hegemonic states in military operations against each other in the geography of this conflict.”
However, Azerbaijan, a geographically small country, managed to engrave its name in the history books as a state that freed its territorial integrity from occupation for the first time in the last ten years. It is no coincidence that after the victory of Azerbaijan in 2020, the states suffering from separatism and the occupation of neighboring countries decided to resolve their conflict by military means and were inspired by the courage of our army.
Undoubtedly, the victory achieved in the fall of 2020 was the result of a well-thought-out systematic policy. The political-ideological line of President Ilham Aliyev on the eve of his historic victory, the reforms he carried out in the military field by strengthening the economy, a number of decisions he made in the direction of state building, state administration, and the perspective he applied regarding foreign policy philosophy conditioned Azerbaijan's victory over the enemy. The fact that while the state budget of Azerbaijan was only 1.3 billion manats in 2003 and it will exceed 30 billion manats in 2023, our strategic currency reserves surpassing 56 billion dollars are important points to be considered.
Another condition for winning the war was related to the ideological policy implemented by the head of state. Unlike the neighboring countries, over the years, official Baku managed to form and strengthen a single line by establishing systematic activities related to political, religious, and national landmarks within the country. As a result, along with Armenia, which wants to raise religious and national-ethnic issues in Azerbaijan and wants to use these cards from time to time as a means of pressure on our country, the dreams of our other neighbors with whom we have common borders have come to naught. At present, the main goals of some foreign actors, who want o confuse the situation in Azerbaijan through their henchmen under the name of Shiism and supposedly to create some kind of awakening among the ethnic groups living in the border areas, the main goals are to divide our society and an attack on unity. However, the policy pursued by the Azerbaijani state has shown that the People-President unity will respond to any provocation with full force would fully respond to any provocation. On the eve of the 44-day war and during the days of battle, the support provided by the Azerbaijani people to the Supreme Commander-in-chief as one person, the ranks of those capable of fighting in front of the military commissariats, regardless of their nationality and religious beliefs and the support given by others, from students to pensioners, to the army in exchange for their abilities, within the society were clear examples of spiritual unity, monolith.
Of course, one of the most important reasons for victory in the globalized system of international relations, which has been integrated since the 20th century, is foreign policy and international conditions. It is very well known to everyone that both the so-called "Armenian genocide" and during the occupation of Azerbaijani lands, Armenia, the Armenian diaspora, and the Armenian church organized a trio pulled the international community to their side, achieving victory not only of truth but of lies and slander for a while. As in 1918-20, starting from the late 1980s, different power centers of the world, governments of hegemonic states, and individual parliamentarians have always implemented their hateful policies against Azerbaijan. Starting from the beginning of the 2000s, official Baku has purposefully and systematically started important activities in the direction of diaspora, information, bilateral and multilateral relations. As a result, on the eve of 2020, Azerbaijan, having an advantage in the information war against Armenia, managed to make the world community recognize Yerevan as an occupier.
The policy pursued by Ilham Aliyev has increased the number of allies and friends of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan strengthened its rightful place at the international level. Regional and global initiatives served to strengthen the image of Azerbaijan in the world, as well as the development of cooperation in the region.
It should be noted that the head of state of Azerbaijan, in all meetings and speeches at the international level, always devoted a lot of space to the military and political provocations of Armenia in his speeches and constantly exposed the aggressive and occupying policy of this country.
There was one point that President Ilham Aliyev emphasized in all his speeches, from the UN tribune to the international events held at various levels, from individual world leaders to the heads of the smallest countries: Armenia is an aggressor, and it must unconditionally withdraw from the Azerbaijani lands, that it occupied. Azerbaijan will never accept the occupation of its territories, it will liberate its lands from occupation by any means. The progress of the processes showed that these statements were not only made for the sake of words. Ilham Aliyev set himself the goal of implementing these statements, which he voiced from various platforms, and he managed to do it as a great master of politics and a skilled military commander managed to do it.
Starting from the beginning of the century, Azerbaijan laid the foundation for new cooperation with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus in the military-political and economic organizations in which Armenia was a part, held important meetings behind closed doors with the regional tandem of Russia and Iran, gained a leading position in the Organization of Turkic States and the Non-Aligned Movement, the increased strategic importance of Baku in the relations with the European Union and the United States year by year, raised the image of our country in international organizations, brought the relations to a high level with individual countries that have a say in the world political arena, in short, proved that Azerbaijan is not an object in regional and international processes, but a real global actor. And, of course, all these factors were serious grounds for victory.
In this sense, it is impossible not to mention the various global events organized by the Azerbaijani state and its leader in our country. In recent years, Azerbaijan has become a place where global challenges are discussed.
Holding World Intercultural Dialogue Forum, Baku International Humanitarian Forum, Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations, Summit meetings of world religious leaders, and other prestigious events, as well as global gatherings supported by the UN in Baku, has become a tradition. Today Baku plays the role of an influential platform for international discussions. Besides, the purposeful policy pursued by Azerbaijan during the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement played an important role in our country's international support during the 44-day war.
The mentioned events, as well as Azerbaijan's chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement, the humanitarian aid provided to individual countries, including the countries that are members of the organization as the chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, allowed to prevent actions against our country on international platforms during the Patriotic War. Those who thought, "Why do we need these measures and the chairmanship of Azerbaijan in the Non-Aligned Movement " got an answer to their questions with what happened in the global political arena during the 44-day war.
The Patriotic War, which lasted for 44 days, was accompanied by the glorious battles of the glorious Azerbaijan Army on the battlefield, as well as Baku's struggle in the field of diplomacy and the wise foreign policy of Ilham Aliyev. During this period, telephone conversations with a number of world leaders, meetings with foreign delegations within the framework of visits to our country, participation in international events, and numerous interviews with leading press representatives of foreign countries formed important components of the Victory diplomacy of the head of state.
From the first days of military operations until the end of the war, the head of state met with representatives of the world's leading media agencies and gave interviews with them. During this period, President Ilham Aliyev gave interviews to about 30 world-famous media organizations from Turkiye, Russia, the US, Italy, France, Germany, England, Qatar, Japan, and other countries, and was the most reliable source of information and brought the truths about Azerbaijan to the attention of the world community.
The diplomatic strategy implemented by the head of state over the years yielded results during the Patriotic War. Azerbaijan was able to get full support in the international political arena.
Thus, 2 years ago, the Republic of Azerbaijan put an end to the "Armenian issue" that was carried out against our country for two centuries and showed that it would not allow this card to be used again. At present, when some neighboring and international circles are using serious pressure against our country, we advise them to look back and take a lesson from history. The state and people of Azerbaijan won a historic victory two years ago and laid the foundation of a new era in the region. In the near future, our country will realize its goals one by one and continue its principled policy of turning the region into a place of stability.
Zaur Mammadov, Adviser to the Academy of Public Administration under the Presidentç Chairman of the Baku Political Scientists Club.
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