"In practice decisions are made automatically. There are certain instructions for the servicemen of the Azerbaijani army. I think every army has that. What your actions should be in case of threat, in case of attack. That is, we had no hesitation on how to act. Moreover, we were expecting this attack. I spoke about this from the UN platform a few days before the escalation. You can see the text of my speech – I said that Armenia is preparing for war. Armenia must be stopped," President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has said in an interview with the Russian RBC TV channel on October 10, APA reports.
"There were a lot of arguments in favor of that. First of all, the statement of the Armenian defense minister he made in America last year when he said that Armenia is preparing for a new war for new territories. Then Pashinyan's statements such as “Karabakh is Armenia” and so on. Further provocative actions in the form of demonstrative settlement of Armenians from Lebanon to Shusha, which is a war crime. Further, the insult of the Azerbaijani people by holding the so-called “swearing-in” ceremony in Shusha – in fact, for the first time in the entire existence of the occupation regime there. An attempt to move the parliament of the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh republic” from Khankandi to Shusha, and much more. All this was a provocation against us. Then July. An unprovoked attack on military positions, and we lost four servicemen and then a civilian in the very first hours. Then August. A sabotage group penetrating Goranboy district on the line of contact. The leader of this group is now giving evidence. We waited. We were ready. Naturally, the decision was made automatically, including myself, without any hesitation. We had to put the aggressor back in its place. In July, Azerbaijani society demanded a continuation. You probably know about this.
In July, the main slogan at the rally was “Commander-in-Chief, give us weapons!” This is what people were saying. In July, we could have easily crossed the state border with Armenia and seized vast territories of the Armenian Republic. But we didn't.
We did not do that. There were no difficulties there. We showed this now when we broke the defense that was deeply echeloned for 30 years. The local terrain there is defense in itself. We were going from bottom up, we were breaking these concrete slabs thanks to the incredible efforts of the Azerbaijani Army, the heroism of our soldiers and officers. What would it have cost us to move into any point in Armenia? But I stopped it, I said that no, we will not go for that, we are not them. We will not enter the internationally recognized territory of Armenia. We reached the border, drove out the invaders who entered our territory and stopped there. In other words, after that we had to punish the aggressor and discourage it from even looking in our direction. And we did that. Look at what a miserable situation Pashinyan is in now. He humiliates himself, calls, begs. There is hardly anyone left he hasn’t called yet. Heads of government of the European Union. And what does he demand? He demands that they recognize Nagorno-Karabakh. It speaks of a complete inadequacy of the Armenian leadership. There is an agreement between Azerbaijan and the European Union, one of which was initialed two years ago. It states that the European Union respects the territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of Azerbaijan’s borders. We have documents on strategic partnership with seven EU member states. All of them recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Only a person who is completely far from politics and devoid of any knowledge in the international sphere can demand recognition for Nagorno-Karabakh. This is where they are now. And we had to punish them. We had to put them in their place. They should know that they can’t talk to us like that and they won't get away with it. And they didn’t. He will be held accountable for the tears of mothers, for the deaths of innocent young citizens of Armenia they are sending to the frontline," the head of the state noted.
Follow us on Telegram
t.me/apanewsaz
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
