President Aliyev: Protest on Lachin road to continue until Azerbaijan has access to monitor mineral deposits

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has hailed the Azerbaijani youth who have been staging a protest on the Lachin-Khankendo road against the illegal mining activities in the Karabakh economic region for nearly a month.

The president said they are a source of pride given their resolute demands day and night in frosty and snowy weather. He added that the ongoing protests did not cause any blockade on the road.

"Separatists are busy transmitting completely false information to the world. First, everyone has already seen that there is no talk of a blockade at all. About four hundred trucks of peacekeepers have passed through there – in less than a month. Of course, all the vehicles that passed there, even prior to this action, were checked. How did we learn that Iranian vehicles were taking fuel there? We saw it there. However, the Iranian side tried to deny it. They even wanted to deceive us at such a primitive level by attaching fake Armenian license plates on Iranian vehicles. Where did we learn that about 20 Iranian citizens have entered there illegally? Their passports are evidence of that. We have not been provided with any explanation of this," Aliyev said in an interview with local TV channels on January 10, according to President.Az.

"So we saw everything and we know everything. We know the number of trucks of the Russian peacekeeping contingent – how many enter and exit each month and how many enter and exit now. Of course, they also take food and other necessary goods to the Armenians living there. We do not object to that. Our goal is not a blockade. As many times as the Red Cross has applied, permission has been granted. This is why it is just another anti-Azerbaijani show, I can't give it another name. Armenians and their patrons think that they will gain something by using this against us. They will get nothing. We have legitimate demands and everyone knows the history of this action."

He went on to add that the Azerbaijani side has not been provided with access to the mines that were exploited illegally.

"This action will probably continue until we have access. Our demands are also completely legitimate. Monitoring, inspection and an end to illegal exploitation are necessary, and we will achieve that. Therefore, it is simply unfair to call the events happening on the Lachin-Khankendi road a blockade," Aliyev said.

Meanwhile, speaking about the restoration work in Lachin, the president said that "the people of Lachin will be the first to return to their native places".

"Because an instruction was given immediately, extensive construction and restoration work is underway in the city of Lachin, and now we will decide when we can return the first residents of Lachin to the city of Lachin this year. This year, we will also return former IDPs to the villages of Zabukh and Sus. Houses were built by some rich Armenians in the village of Zabukh. I temporarily gave those houses to the soldiers. I said that our citizens would not live in those houses. We use them as barracks. But a new settlement is being built for the people of Zabukh in the village of Zabukh, and this year we will send them there," he said.