Aliyev says Baku growing Military capacities, offers Armenia to forget Nagorno Karabakh

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made a number of statements at a meeting with the leadership and staff of the Azerbaijani military on the occasion of the Armed Forces Day on June 26. In particular, according to local media, Aliyev said that Azerbaijan would continue to grow the capacity of the military, and that “Armenia must realize that.”

“Our military power will increase,” he said. “After the end of the war, relevant instructions were given, new agreements were signed, and the process of acquiring new weapons and equipment based on modern technologies began.”

He also said that the structural reforms of the Armed Forces have been approved.

“I can say that the number of armed forces and army will increase. By correctly analyzing the results of the second Karabakh war, we will increase our military power. If Armenia does not abandon its hostile policy towards us, it will not be able to restore not only the military, the army, but also have limited opportunities to restore economic activity,” Aliyev said. He also offered Armenia to “forget the expression Nagorno Karabakh.”

“Armenia has only one way – to normalize relations with its neighbors, to renounce territorial claims, not to use the term Nagorno Karabakh at all,” Aliyev said. He again put forward the Azeri thesis that there is no such territorial entity as ‘Nagorno Karabakh’, and there is no such notion as ‘Nagorno Karabakh conflict’.

Aliyev also spoke about the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. He said that a working group should be set up for the delimitation of the borders, work should be done with Armenia to prepare a peace agreement.

“I have stated more than once, I want to say once again that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is resolved, Armenia must accept it, work with us to determine the borders,” Aliyev added.