Messages to Armenia and entire world from Basgal
Afterword to President Aliyev's interview

ANALYTICS  15 August 2022 - 14:33

On August 12, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited the Basgal settlement in the Ismayilli region where he gave an interview to Azerbaijani TV. The interview of the head of the state is remarkable first of all because he spoke not about today but about the future. He spoke about the way we and our neighbors in the South Caucasus will live, and what must be done to ensure lasting and strong peace in the region. Much of what he said in this context are effective formulas, following which it is possible to improve the existence of peoples and states.

Unfortunately, such operations are effective...

Of course, he was talking about the successful counter-offensive operation "Revenge" recently carried out by the Azerbaijani Army. Returning to this topic, the president once again stressed that our country does not want to force Armenians to peace with a machine gun, we want it to happen by itself, voluntarily, with a sense of peace and based on the principles of good-neighborliness. This is the main condition for peaceful dialogue. The recognition of this fact will affect all foreign policy in the South Caucasus. President is sincerely upset that our neighbors do not want to realize this and therefore we have to use force.

"I must also report that after "Revenge", hundreds of Armenian troops were withdrawn from the Karabakh region. This shows that, unfortunately, such operations are effective. I say "unfortunately" because it should not have come to this," the president stressed, and his regret over the effectiveness of such methods also indicates that for Azerbaijan, the path of war, of any kind of military action, is the last and most extreme. The world is beautiful without bullets and shells.

In general, Ilham Aliyev, answering the questions of the TV journalist, several times stressed that Azerbaijan does not want any wars and has no claims to other people's territories. Unfortunately, such delusional statements are sometimes voiced by our country's detractors and the Azerbaijani diplomacy always has to bear this in mind. There are countries and political forces that are poorly acquainted with our history, or simply do not want to understand and recognize that Azerbaijan is not a militaristic state, and simply wants to live in peace with everyone, not only in the South Caucasus. With every word of this interview, the president has convincingly proved that Azerbaijan is most sincere and serious in its policy of peaceful dialogue with its neighbors. It is and will be so.

"We do not want a new war - the Second Karabakh Цar has already demonstrated our strength, we have achieved what we wanted by military and then military-political means," the head of state said. He seemed to want to convey to our neighbors and to the whole world that we've had enough of war, it's time to put the end to the confrontation and start building a new life. And it's important to do it not at gunpoint. We don't want that, and you mustn't force us to do it.

It's all agreed

Another hoax that has recently been actively spread by the Armenians in the media, trying in particular to leave the route of the Lachin corridor unchanged - the statements that the Azerbaijani side allegedly built a new road around the city of Lachin without coordination with the Armenian and Russian sides. So a new fable was disseminated in the press, invented either by those who are trying to bring our relations with our neighbors to a deadlock, or who have no idea what is going on in the South Caucasus - as they say, they are not aware of it. The president made the situation as clear as possible.

"Immediately after the Second Karabakh War, we began negotiations with the Russian side about the route of this road. That is, this road did not appear by itself. We agreed on it. There were several routes, in the end, we chose this one," Aliyev clarified, disavowing such arguments of the Armenian lobby once and for all.

Azerbaijan responded to the request of the Karabakh Armenians

The new road around Lachin is more than three dozen kilometers long, and Azerbaijan has taken this task with the utmost responsibility. Only now all the details of this unique project and, more importantly, the most correct and humane position of Azerbaijan are being clarified. The position is that Baku treats people living in the Karabakh region as its citizens, taking into account their problems and needs. We can draw an unambiguous conclusion from the president's statement: Azerbaijan acted as nobly as possible in this sense - offered to build the Armenian part of the road at its own expense. But Armenia refused, saying that they would do everything themselves. And "they did." So far, not even the preparatory works have been started - a feasibility study for the Armenian part of the route has just been initiated. And it is only for 8-9 km of the route. Now the Armenian side says it will build its part by the end of 2023. Such tricks and disrespect to Azerbaijan were called by the president with one word - "manipulation."

Even after that, displaying Olympic self-restraint and being as kind as possible to people, Azerbaijan met the Armenian side and did not remain indifferent to the Karabakh Armenians' request to give them time to leave before the end of August. Actually, our country always does that - it's enough to remember how much time Armenians were given for the liberation of Kalbajar and Aghdam after the 44-day war. That is, our state showed leniency to those who had recently been killing Azerbaijani soldiers.

Here it is quite appropriate to stop and remember how ruthlessly and inhumanely, in cold and freezing temperatures, using firearms and cold steel, killing and torturing, separatists expelled from the same Kalbajar the indigenous inhabitants - Azerbaijanis, to remember that here, in this region Armenian monsters committed genocide, no less terrible than in Khojaly. And Azerbaijan, without pompous phrases and empty eloquence, responds with good against evil in the name of a peaceful life in the land of the South Caucasus. Reboot your memory, gentlemen Armenians, and try for once to appreciate, as an exception, the shown humanism, leaving the vicious circle of contrived "revenge against the Turks".

The most interesting thing is that by dragging out the construction of the road - in fact, a very small segment of the route, seemingly fooling around, but in fact, since 2020, Armenia cynically framed the residents of Lachin, Zabukh, and Sus, its own fellow countrymen, who could be left without communication routes due to the inaction of the Armenian authorities. The representatives of Azerbaijan, responding to the requests of the Armenians in a difficult situation, built an unpaved road of four kilometers to the point which will be connected with the Armenian border. So while the new highway is being built, Armenians from Karabakh can safely travel to Armenia. That is, everything for you - we don't mind, but let's live peacefully.

Their rights will be protected

In the future, all the Armenians left in Karabakh will have the same rights and obligations as the citizens of Azerbaijan of other nationalities. But we must forget about the "special status" forever - everyone is equal in the Azerbaijani state. This is an invaluable gift for the Armenians of Karabakh - they will be under the protection of our state.

"Their rights will be protected just like the rights of the citizens of Azerbaijan, like the rights of the people living in Azerbaijan," the president said. This is perhaps the most important thing for the fate of the Armenians of Karabakh.

Sincerity wins

The Azerbaijani president truly believes in a better future, that good human quality will take over. He is an optimist in the truest sense of the word. As one Taoist sage once said when asked how he manages to achieve truth and understanding, "I conquer all intrigues and enmities with my sincerity". So the policy of our president and our country, in general, is as sincere as possible. Even in response to intrigues of separatists, who sometimes hold a hoe in one hand, supposedly to cultivate the field, while the other clutches a loaded gun behind his back. But thank God, not everyone is like that - ordinary people want peace and understanding. They want a full life.

Now, sane Armenians see the huge difference between the current attitude of the Azerbaijani authorities to the people of Karabakh and thirty years of ignorance of Yerevan and the diaspora to the invaded region and its people. They reproach and ask the same Syrian and Lebanese Armenians - natives of separatist armed groups from the Middle East, whom Yerevan intended to settle in these lands for 30 years - not to make aggressive statements. And if you do not like something, then leave, and not threaten Azerbaijan with armed resistance on its own land. Do not burn houses and trees, and when leaving, remember that everything sooner or later comes back like a boomerang.

Those Armenians who live in Karabakh today understand more and more clearly that all the bombastic calls of radical Armenians have led them to a dead end of a miserable existence - the ideas of "Great Armenia" are based on empty talk, while Yerevan and the diaspora have done nothing for the Armenians of Karabakh. The phony patriotism of the "Karabakh clan" led by the Kocharyans and Sargsyans did not lead to the slightest improvement in life in Karabakh, but cultivated the total corruption in the Armenian army and Armenian society and dissipated with the final chord - the capitulation of the policy of aggression. In all of this, only the essence of the inhuman instincts of Armenians, as a diaspora ideological phenomenon, absolutely ruthless to both its own and others, can be seen.

Especially ruthless in Armenia are those who try to escape from the yoke of ideological slavery and tend to the sincere and fair position of Azerbaijan. Such daredevils, for example, who want to take Azerbaijani citizenship and simply live in Karabakh, i.e. people like Gambaryan and Verdyan, are criminally charged with espionage.

The Armenian diaspora is no less hypocritical in front of ordinary Armenians, who only stuff their own belly by exposing Karabakh Armenians as martyrs, filling their own pockets under the guise of collecting humanitarian funds for them. Karabakh Armenians should have asked themselves an important question long ago - where are the houses, sanatoriums, and roads built at the expense of the "mighty" Armenian diaspora - they never existed, and the pensions in Armenia (not to mention the separatists) are half as high as in Azerbaijan.

Changes taking place in consciousness

Speaking about the new world being created in Karabakh and the attitude of local Armenians towards what is happening there, the president described it with one phrase: "Changes are taking place in the consciousness." An incredible fact which, according to the president, is due to the right and wise policy of Azerbaijan, which brings a new life to Karabakh. After all, the time is not far off when Russian peacekeepers will also be leaving the region, so one way or another, Armenians and Azerbaijanis will have to come to agreements on their own, without intermediaries, Brussels and Moscow. And in this sense, the problem of relations between people of different nationalities is already an internal affair of Azerbaijan. This is what the President means when he says: "There is no Karabakh issue in the normalization process ongoing between Armenia and Azerbaijan today. What are we talking about? The rights and security of the Armenians living in Karabakh."

Here too, everything is quite obvious: the Armenians who decided to stay in Karabakh and accepted the citizenship of Azerbaijan are choosing a better life. The process of integration of Armenians is already underway. Judging by what Azerbaijan is doing now for the Karabakh region - building new houses, schools, and hospitals, planting fields, and gardens, turning Karabakh into a blooming land, and creating the most comfortable conditions for the population, including Armenians, we can foresee the rapid development of this region.

"Armenians have seen that the Azerbaijani authorities treat them as their citizens, I've talked about it, it's not news," the president of the country noted. And that's what it's all about.

As for the integration of Azerbaijanis and Armenians, during the interview, the head of state told an interesting case that perfectly characterizes what is happening. It turns out that while the new road along the Lachin was being created, the Azerbaijani builders had a lot of direct contact with the local residents. Some of them even helped in the work of laying the road and thanked Azerbaijan for such an excellent highway. That is, local Armenians increasingly understand that the exaggerated myth about "scary Azerbaijanis" is invented by the very aggressive Armenians who do not want peace between our peoples.

"People-to-people contact will serve long-term peace," the president concluded, and he is certainly right. Everything starts small, and trust is gained in stages. Ilham Aliyev is reasonably optimistic in his belief in the future of Azerbaijan and the entire region, and it is hard not to be inspired by his well-founded, action-backed confidence.

Caliber.Az