Azerbaijani president embraces Khojaly returnees, outlines future vision for embattled town In the wake of President Aliyev’s speech

President Ilham Aliyev visited the city of Khojaly, where he met with its first returning residents - 44 families. The meeting was marked by touching moments. For example, the chairwoman of the Awareness of the Armenian Aggression public association, Sariya Jafarova, invited the presidential couple to her restored house, which she left thirty-two years ago.

Ilham Aliyev also got acquainted in detail with the development plan of Khojaly, which includes, in addition to the construction of a variety of housing, educational and other infrastructure, also the inclusion of the city in transport communications and its transformation, thanks to its unique location between strategic settlements of Karabakh, into a kind of regional transport hub.

During the conversation with city residents, the president touched upon the issue of security and settlement of the conflict with Armenia.

“I am sure that Armenia will never again try to commit any military provocation against Azerbaijan. Although there are quite a lot of revanchists in Armenia. We are also following the latest events; we see that there are attempts to once again put forward territorial claims against us. Therefore, we must be ready at any moment. Of course, first of all, we need to further strengthen our army, and we are doing this,” the president said.

Thus, the president once again repeated the idea that the most reliable guarantor of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is its armed forces. Aliyev’s words also reflect the fact that, despite all the attempts of the current leadership of Armenia to take the path of normalizing relations and abandoning revanchism, Baku cannot base its strategy on the hope of a significant shift in the paradigm of consciousness of the Armenian society as a whole, and unscrupulous circles, trying to seize power in Armenia, in particular.

At the same time, these words also sound like a warning to both the revanchist forces themselves and their foreign patrons.

The following words of the president deserve special attention. “The whole of Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur will become a very strong defensive zone, and work is already underway here in this direction, so that the Azerbaijani people can always be sure that such tragedies will not happen to our people again.”

With this statement, Aliyev once again put an end to various kinds of insinuations fueled in the West about Baku’s alleged plans for aggression towards the Republic of Armenia. We have a strong defensive zone, but we are not going to attack anyone. At the same time, it is worth recalling another speech by Aliyev, where he emphasized the possibility of strikes on the territory of Armenia in the event that danger emanates from there for Azerbaijan.

Touching on the topic of the Khojaly genocide, President Aliyev sent another important message to Yerevan: “Armenia itself must admit this, it must apologize to us. Only by doing this, the current leadership of Armenia may be able to at least a little wash away the sins of these savages, vandals and bloodsuckers. If it does not do this, then I think Armenia itself will never be able to rise to its feet. First of all, Armenia itself must recognize this tragedy, this is a crime, a war crime.”

Indeed, the well-being of Armenia is impossible without regulating relations with Azerbaijan and Türkiye with the subsequent inclusion of the “country of stones” in various regional projects. And the normalization of relations, in turn, is impossible without recognition of the fact of war crimes and repentance for them.

The Khojaly land, sprinkled with the blood of innocently murdered residents, is turning into a paradise before the eyes of the whole world. This is a great sign from the Almighty that justice can and must be restored on earth. Azerbaijan, which has defeated an entire edifice of evil, hypocrisy and injustice in the South Caucasus over the past four years, is an example of a new type of society that has managed to rehabilitate international law and calls on all humanity to a just world order.