President Aliyev says Yerevan gave “necessary answer” to Baku in Brussels meeting 5 basic principles

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that if funds were allocated for Armenia’s militarization, Baku would perceive this as an unfriendly step, Caliber.Az reports, citing Interfax-Azerbaijan.

“In the Second Karabakh War, we destroyed $4-5 billion worth of Armenian equipment. Some of this equipment was taken as a trophy and is used by us, and another part is demonstrated in the War Trophies Park. The question is, where does poor Armenia get such money from?” President Aliyev said Tuesday in a government meeting dedicated to the results of the first quarter of 2022.

“Where are these loans from? Are these loans repaid or not? Or are they written off? If these loans were not available, then, I am absolutely sure, there would be no need for the Second Karabakh War.”

He added that if Armenia had not been allocated such significant funds for armaments, then Yerevan would have “come to an agreement with Baku with its head bowed”. Aliyev vowed adequate response to financial support for arming Armenia, which he said would be recognized as an unfriendly step against Azerbaijan.

President Aliyev said during the years of occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia, most countries did not want to call it occupation and a violation of territorial integrity, although the fact of occupation was obvious, it was perfectly known who was the occupier and who was occupied. It's called "double standards and injustice”, according to him

“We are seeing this today also in the war between Russia and Ukraine: when we liberated our lands with the help of Bayraktar drones during the Second Karabakh War, foreign experts and media called these UAVs “deadly weapons”, and now during the Russian-Ukrainian war call they call it "angel". This is what double standards mean, this is what injustice towards us means, and this is the reality,” President Aliyev said.

In the meantime, the Azerbaijani president highlighted the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia as the main issue on current agenda.

“Any organizations that are willing to contribute to this process are acceptable. Armenia reacted positively to our 5 basic principles for the normalization of relations. I wanted to clarify this point at the meeting in Brussels and got the necessary answer. If Armenia accepts these 5 principles, it means that Armenia renounces territorial claims against Azerbaijan,” he noted.

President Aliyev added that Azerbaijani-Armenian working groups on the preparation of a peace treaty and delimitation of borders would be formed by the end of April and should start operating as soon as possible.

In addition, he has recalled the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group, a trio of diplomats from the U.S., France, and Russia mandated to mediate the negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan over a former conflict in the Karabakh region.

“Azerbaijan itself settled this conflict. Settled by military-political means. In fact, the mandate given to the Minsk Group to resolve the conflict may be valid de jure, but de facto it may be considered invalid,” President Aliyev said.

Meanwhile, the president shared his thoughts also about the new platform of regional cooperation, known as “3+3 format”, which includes Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Russia, and Iran.

“We have plans on the agenda for the second meeting in the 3+3 format. The meeting should be held soon, there is no time to waste,” he said.

As part of this platform, it is necessary to achieve concrete results, otherwise, it will lose its significance, according to Aliyev.

“We stand for real results. We have a very clear idea of the future development of the region. We know what we want and will continue to use every opportunity to achieve our goals,” he said.