Former US ambassador impressed by quality of work in liberated Azerbaijani lands

Former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, former co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza has said that he was greatly impressed by the quality of work and strategic planning in the liberated Azerbaijani territories.

Bryza made these remarks in the international forum entitled “Karabakh: Back Home After 30 Years. Accomplishments and Challenges” at ADA University in which Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev took part on December 6, APA reports.

“Our visit to Zangilan yesterday made a great impression. I have never seen such large-scale reconstruction works in Azerbaijan. I was deeply impressed not only by the quality of the construction work but by the strategic planning as well. A lot of thought has been put into the reconstruction plan of these areas. It aims to revive the economic life, the spirit of the city, and to create better living conditions for the internally displaced people than they currently have in Baku,” Bryza added.

President Ilham Aliyev shared with us his strategic vision of Azerbaijan's future, Bryza said.

The former ambassador noted that during the three-hour conference, President Ilham Aliyev answered everyone’s questions, he was so clear, sincere, strategic and he outlined a vision for Azerbaijan’s future in cooperation with its friends from Central Asia, Europe and the US.

"Moreover, he provided an explanation of the past, how Azerbaijan prepared for many years to be independent politically and economically, and have capacity to restore its sovereignty," Bryza said.

He also noted that a key point of President Ilham Aliyev's speech is that Azerbaijan was clearly eager to finalize a peace treaty.

"President Ilham Aliyev hopes that Pashinyan as well can fight the political opposition to peace that he faces, fight the old regime that wants to come back into power and maybe want to provoke him into another conflict. President Ilham Aliyev also stressed how the removal of illegal Armenian troops in Karabakh and the separatist political regime eliminated the last major obstacle for Pashinyan to proceed to the peace treaty," he said.