Baku, September 28, AZERTAC

“Responsibility for the outbreak of the second Karabakh war, of course, rests squarely with Armenia and also with the superpowers that did not stop Armenia in good time,” said President Ilham Aliyev in his interview with the Turkish Anadolu Agency.

“If the Minsk Group had put serious pressure on Armenia on time, of course, Armenia would have been forced to withdraw from the occupied territories, and in that case, there would have been no need for war. But they did not put pressure on Armenia even though the three co-chair countries of the Minsk Group are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. In other words, they are the most powerful countries in the world. Didn't they have the political clout or political opportunities to send such serious messages to Armenia? They simply gave preference to the “neither war nor peace” policy,” the head of state mentioned.

“I have repeatedly appealed to the Minsk Group co-chairs and other superpowers, urging them to impose sanctions on Armenia. This could have prevented the war too. Because such sanctions would have caused major difficulties for a country as weak as Armenia, and they would have been forced to leave our lands. In other words, we used all the opportunities available to resolve the issue peacefully – without war and without bloodshed. But at the same time, I kept saying that we would not come to terms with this situation. We would have liberated our land at any cost and were simply giving them a chance,” the Azerbaijani President said.

“You know, the new leadership of Armenia, which came to power in 2018, dealt a severe blow to these talks, to the process of discussions. Because their inappropriate and very irresponsible statements actually paralyzed the discussion process. In other words, the talks were completely paralyzed. Under such circumstances, the Minsk Group should have taken more positive and more courageous steps. Instead, they acted as observers. They approached the process as observers. Therefore, responsibility for the outbreak of the second Karabakh war, of course, rests squarely with Armenia and also with the superpowers that did not stop Armenia in good time,” President Ilham Aliyev said.