Mon 05 October 2020:
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev demanded on Sunday that Armenia set a timetable for withdrawing from the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Azeri territories, and said Azerbaijan would not cease military action until that happened.
President Ilham Aliyev congratulated the people of Azerbaijan Sunday on the liberation of the city of Jabrayil from Armenian occupation and set several conditions to end military operations, including the withdrawal of Armenian troops from occupied territories.
In an address to the nation, Aliyev said the end of Azerbaijani operations to liberate their land would only occur when Armenian forces retreat from Azerbaijani territory and the country’s territorial integrity is recognized.
He also asked Armenian President Armen Sarkissian to apologize to the Azerbaijani people and to declare that Karabakh is not Armenian land.
Aliyev said Sarkissian should also reveal the date of the withdrawal of Armenian troops from occupied territories.
He vowed to rebuild all of the cities that were liberated including restoring all mosques that were damaged by Armenian forces.
Saying they have been waiting in hope for years to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through negotiations, Aliyev recalled that in response to this, Armenia had stated that they would not return the land.
“In the current situation, the sole responsibility lies with the Yerevan administration. At the same time, some countries that ignore this issue and always support Armenia are also responsible,” he said.
He said the international community had failed for three decades to enforce U.N. resolutions or put pressure on Armenia to return Azeri territories.
The content and tone of Aliyev’s message made clear that Azerbaijan would not entertain calls for an immediate ceasefire, as Russia, the United States and European Union have urged.
Speaking immediately after Aliyev’s speech, Armenian Defence Ministry official Artsrun Hovhannisyan said: “I don’t think that there is any risk for Yerevan (the Armenian capital), but anyway we are in war.”
The clashes are the worst since the 1990s, when some 30,000 people were killed and are spreading beyond the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. They have raised international concern about stability in the South Caucasus, where pipelines carry Azeri oil and gas to world markets.
