Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has not ruled out the possibility of concluding a peace agreement with Armenia, Azerbaijani media reports.
He believes that the situation in the conflict zone around Nagorno-Karabakh remains fragile after the cessation of hostilities.
“The situation is still fragile after the war. The ceasefire is being maintained, but despite that, we still have many questions about the development of the post-war situation,” Aliyev said at a conference in Baku.
During the opening of the “War Loot” park in Baku, he stated that the third president Serzh Sargsyan had promised to hand over Artsakh to them after the four-day war in 2016.
“During the April fighting, day and night, they called the head of the Russian General Staff, begging Azerbaijan to end the war. We stopped on the condition that the talks would start immediately, they started. A month after the end of the war, a meeting at the level of foreign ministers of the Minsk Group co-chairing countries took place in Vienna. Why hasn’t there been a meeting of this level before? But it was during the April battles that we hit the Armenians, a meeting took place in May.
A summit was held in Russia in June. Sargsyan promised me that he needed two weeks. He said he would resolve the issue. I agreed and he left. After that, they either organized it there or it happened by itself, they occupied the police station (regiment). Under this pretext, he broke his promise. We were deceived again. And not only Sargsyan, everyone. In 2018, the Nakhichevan operation was carried out, we taught them a lesson again, and we showed that all this will end badly, we will destroy them. And that did not become a lesson. Moreover, it coincided with a change of government. A new government has been formed in Armenia,” he said.
Notably: On 27 September, the Azerbaijani side launched hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh, occupying most of it, including the city of Shushi.
On 9 November, Russian President Vladimir Putin, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a joint statement on the cessation of hostilities that started on 27 September.
The trilateral statement states in particular that Kelbajar will be returned to Azerbaijan by 15 November (later that period was extended by 10 days), Aghdam region by 20 November, and Lachin region by 1 December, leaving a corridor of 5 km wide, which will ensure Armenia’s connection, but will not touch Shushi.
In addition, along with the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Lachin corridor, Russian peacekeeping forces of 1960 troops with firearms, 90 armored vehicles and 380 vehicles and special equipment are deployed. The peacekeepers remain for five years with the possibility of automatic extension, unless the parties announce the termination of this provision six months before the expiration of the next five years.
It is also mentioned that internally displaced persons and refugees are returning to Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas, exchanging prisoners of war and exchanging other detainees, and unblocking all economic and transport ties in the region is carried out.
