"And the very fact that we’ve been in the process of negotiations for 28 years since the Minsk Group was established is a clear demonstration of that. We wanted to resolve the issue peacefully and we had hopes during different times of negotiation process. I was involved in negotiation process since 2003. I held negotiations with 3 leaders of Armenia, and I can tell you that this was a very negative experience in any kind of negotiations held globally, because we clearly realized after many years of this useless meetings that Armenia didn’t want peace," said President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev as he received Foreign Minister of Romania Bogdan Aurescu, Foreign Minister of Austria Alexander Schallenberg, Foreign Minister of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis and a delegation of the European Union who are on a visit to Azerbaijan mandated by High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell, APA reports.
"They wanted to keep the status-quo unchanged. They wanted to keep our lands under occupation forever and their participation in negotiations was a kind of imitation of negotiation process. They were trying to mislead international and European organizations that they want to have a settlement but Azerbaijan is not constructive. So, what happened recently is also totally a responsibility of the Armenian government which made a lot of provocative steps and actions and provoke the war. There are a lot of evidences which can prove my position. I will bring you just a couple of examples. Armenian defense minister publicly said that Armenia is preparing for a new war for new territories. That was an open threat against Azerbaijan. Armenian prime minister said that the so-called authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh should be a part of negotiations which actually was against not only our interests but against the format which was elaborated by the OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chairs. Therefore, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries also were a little bit surprised to put it mildly with this position. They objectively considered it as an attempt to walk away from negotiation process, because the format of negotiations was established by the two countries and by the OSCE: it’s a conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Another provocative statement made by Armenian leadership was that “Karabakh is Armenia and that's it” which actually de facto put an end to any kind of negotiations. First, it was very contradictory statement, because on the one hand the Armenian leadership was saying that Karabakh is an independent country and Azerbaijan have to negotiate with it and then they say that “Karabakh is Armenia”. We asked them where you are telling the truth? Actually, they were lying in both cases. But that was a very provocative statement which actually made any negotiation useless, and meaningless. During my several meetings with Minsk Group ambassadors I saw that they were also a little bit embarrassed and surprised with this position and actually they didn’t know what to do. If Karabakh is Armenia, then what to do about it? So, that was a deliberate attempt of Armenian leadership to totally destroy negotiation process and to keep the lands forever under occupation. But that was not a full story. Then last year they made three provocative military actions on the line of contact, and on our state border killing civilians, shelling our villages and provoking us. So, the second Karabakh war was inevitable, and it was clear for everyone. Now we are in the situation of the post-conflict development. Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved. There is nothing to negotiate about that. The trilateral statement which was signed on 10 November is not only a ceasefire agreement as some international politicians want to present it. If everybody looks at that paper everybody will see that it’s not only about ceasefire, it’s about many other issues. So, we need to think about the post-conflict situation. Again, as I said in the beginning of my comments, we are ready to turn the page, we are ready to move forward and to contribute to regional stability.
Once again, I would like to express gratitude for the visit. I hope it will be very successful, fruitful. And after your regional tour, definitely we will be in touch through our embassy in Brussels, through our Foreign Ministry in order to discuss our future plans," noted Azerbaijani President.
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