Azerbaijani leader: "They should have known that we would never reconcile with this situation"

"When I was first elected president in 2003, I addressed the Azerbaijani people and said that at any cost, we will regain our historical lands from the control of the enemy. Whether peacefully or through war, and so it happened," President of Azerbaijan, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev said in his speech to the military in Shusha, Report informs.

"The peace talks that were conducted for many years did not yield any results. The result was zero. On the contrary, the enemy became even more depraved and aggressive. If in the first years of the occupation, the Azerbaijani people and I still had some hopes for negotiations, those hopes were completely dashed in the past years.

“Armenia and its supporters wanted to perpetuate this occupation. They considered that if they managed to retain our lands under occupation for about 30 years, they would continue to occupy the lands forever from now on. But they were wrong. They should have known that we would never reconcile ourselves with the situation.

“They should have known that we would drive the enemy out of our lands at any cost. We had to be ready for that, as a people, as a state, all the preparations had to be made and carried out in a timely manner. As you know, the army building, the strengthening of our military potential was my main task as the president, and it is no coincidence that during my presidency, the main expenditures of our state budget were intended for military purposes.

“Over these years, we have created a strong military-technical potential. The state-of-the-art weapons, ammunition, and equipment were brought to our country, and these pieces of equipment were used properly by the military. The second Karabakh war is a vivid proof of it. The combat capability of our army has increased dramatically.

“Military exercises and drills were held regularly, and thus both the technical equipment, morale and combat capability of our army have greatly increased," the president said.