Nagorno Garabagh

Home page

Nagorno Garabagh

Azerbaijani President: "If we are destroying churches as Armenians say, why didn’t we destroy it here in Baku?

09 November 2020 14:39 (UTC +04:00)

"In order to investigate it, we have to be there to investigate. I said many times, either it was a mistake of our artillery or it was a deliberate provocation by Armenians themselves", said President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in his interview with BBC News on November 6 while answering a question on "We have had an attack in Nagorno-Karabakh, I beg your pardon, a church which was shelled twice on the same day. Now, you have said that possibly it was a mistake, you have said you will carry out an investigation. What’s the result of the investigation?", APA reports.

"So, they shelled their own church?", said the journalist.

"Exactly", stressed head of state.

"They, of course, deny this", said the journalist.

Of course, they deny, they deny everything. They denied that they hit Ganja with ballistic missiles from the territory of Armenia. Armenian prime minister said that it is false information. Though your country, United States, France, Russia can easily detect from where the ballistic missile was launched.

With regards to the church, I said, either it was a mistake or they did it deliberately, because the images of that church which I have seen, show that it is a very minor damage. And this damage can be repaired within maximum two weeks. This is first. Second, you are here in Baku, probably you have seen Armenian church in the city center which we restored and we keep thousands of Armenian books. If we are destroying churches as Armenians say, why didn’t we destroy it here in Baku?", added Azerbaijani President.

Journalist asked: "But can you say categorically that your forces did not attack the church?"

"I say categorically that many times, either it was a mistake or… It could have been by mistake only. Because there was no military target. Church was not among the military targets. We had military targets in Stepanakert, which is the city called Khankandi in Azerbaijani. We had military targets in Shusha and we hit those military targets because they attacked us. So, probably that was a mistake", responded Azerbaijani President.

"But could you have made a mistake twice in the same day? It was hit twice?", said the journalist.

"Why not? Have you seen the images of Azerbaijani mosques on the occupied territories? They are all destroyed. They keep pigs in our mosques. And the recent video footage of mosque in Zangilan which was liberated show that they kept pigs there", noted Azerbaijani President.