On 26 February, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev stated that despite the ongoing political crisis in Armenia (Caucasus Watch reported), the trilateral statement between him, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Nagorno-Karabakh must be implemented.  

“There is a total crisis in Armenia today. I would not like to somehow comment on their internal situation. In principle, we never interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, especially at this sensitive time, but the results of the war remain and will remain unchanged. The statement signed on 10 November is being executed and must be fully implemented. A significant part of the provisions of this Statement has already been implemented. But there are issues that are a topic of discussion today. I hope that despite the situation in Armenia, the statement signed on 10 November will be implemented. Otherwise, Armenia will find itself in an even more difficult situation. In other words, there is not so much choice before Armenia. They need to come to terms with the new reality. We have created the new reality,” he said.

Commenting on any Armenian attempt to curb the fulfilment of the deal, Aliyev said, quoting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “that will be a suicide.” “That is exactly the word because it will be only worse. Therefore, today in Armenia they should understand that the situation… they found themselves is the result of their long-lasting policy against Azerbaijan, is the result of the occupation. It is not only what happened in the last two years or three-four months. It is just because of the occupation,” he noted.

Aliyev added that another condition for Azerbaijan in terms of peace is that political circles of Armenia should understand that any attempts at revenge will be severely punished by Azerbaijan. “If we see any threat, if we consider it a serious threat to ourselves, then an immediate response will follow. Therefore, I warn that there should not be any attempts at exacting revenge. Armenia must fully implement the statement of 10 November, and peace will come to the region gradually, in a step-by-step manner,” Aliyev said.

The Azerbaijani president also addressed other issues regarding Nagorno-Karabakh, including mine clearances, prisoners of war exchange, the Russian-Turkish monitoring centre and the Armenian-Azerbaijani co-existence in the region. In regard to the first issue, Aliyev highlighted that mining was the biggest obstacle. “The Armenian side did not provide us with maps of minefields. This, in fact, can also be considered a crime because we have had several cases both among military personnel and among civilians when people died after the end of the hostilities only because we were not provided with maps of minefields. With the resources we have today, it is impossible to ensure rapid demining,” he said.

In regard to the POW exchange, Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan acts in line with the norms of morality and universal human behaviour. He pointed out that Azerbaijan returned all Armenian POWs and any speculation by Armenia on this subject is inappropriate.

“Of course, we carried out a counter-terrorist operation, as a result of which several terrorists were completely neutralised and more than 60 were captured. When some people try to describe them as prisoners of war today, I think they are deliberately distorting the essence of the issue. There cannot be a prisoner of war 20 days after the war. We returned… all the prisoners of war we had. In fact, we returned them earlier than they returned ours. These people do not fall into this category. These are terrorists and saboteurs. So, any speculation on the part of Armenia or some countries is inappropriate,” he said. 

As for the monitoring centre, Aliyev said that he believes that the centre would function as a very important instrument for the post-war period. Finally, in regard to the issue of Armenian-Azerbaijani co-existence, the Azerbaijani president ruled out any tension between Armenian civilians and Azerbaijani border guards on liberated territories that border Armenia. “Currently, there is no Azerbaijani army in the direction of eastern Zangazur [that we] liberated, on the border with Zangilan. The State Border Service of Azerbaijan is present. Notice that there is no tension between the Armenian civilian population and Azerbaijani border guards. A peaceful life continues. We approached the border, settled there, but did not cross it. Currently, some of the villages are located on our territory and there are no Armenian armed forces there. Armenia did not even have a state border service, because I can tell you that the Armenian border with Turkey and Iran is guarded by Russian troops. So, we stand on our border. We are not taking any negative steps towards the Armenian population,” he said.

He added that the 20-km road connecting Armenian cities passes through the territory of Azerbaijan. “We have created this opportunity. We even put up a big poster there: Welcome to Azerbaijan! I can't understand why this irritates Armenia in any way. Honestly, I don’t understand this because the vehicles passing there, the people should see that they are entering Azerbaijan, are using the territory of Azerbaijan quietly, and there are no problems. Therefore, we do not have to strive for anything else to achieve sustainable peace. We have restored what is ours and demonstrated that our words and deeds have equal value,” Aliyev added.