Azerbaijan's glorious victory - triumph of international law, justice, and NAM values, says Ilham Aliyev

"The year 2020 was remarkable for Azerbaijan, as one of the important items on the Movement's Agenda was successfully resolved. As you know, Armenia, for about 30 years, kept under occupation almost 20 % of the territory of our country. Armenia conducted ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis. More than one million Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs. Armenia committed the Khojaly genocide in February 1992, killing hundreds of civilians, including 106 women and 63 children. Khojaly genocide has been recognized by 13 countries," President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said speaking at the Mid-term Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement held in a video format today.

"The UN Security Council adopted four resolutions in 1993 demanding immediate, complete, and unconditional withdrawal of the armed forces of Armenia from Azerbaijan's occupied territories. Other influential international organizations, including the Non-Aligned Movement, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and OSCE, have also adopted similar decisions and resolutions. However, the demands of leading international organizations were ignored by Armenia. Thus, the sole aim of Armenia was to keep the status quo and consolidate the occupation.

"During recent years, Armenia deliberately destroyed the negotiation process, threatening Azerbaijan with a new war for new territories. In 2020, Armenia three times resorted to military provocations along the state border and the former line of contact, killing our military personnel and civilians.

"Last September, Armenia launched a large-scale military attack against Azerbaijan. In response to this aggression, Azerbaijani Army conducted a counter-attack operation and liberated a large part of occupied territories.

Totally defeated in the course of the 44-day Patriotic War, Armenia had to sign an act of capitulation on 10 November 2020. Accordingly, Armenia was obliged to withdraw its troops from the remaining part of Azerbaijan's territories. Azerbaijan itself ensured the implementation of the abovementioned UN Security Council resolutions.

"Thus, Azerbaijan resolved the 30-year-long conflict and restored its territorial integrity and historical justice by military-political means. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was left in the past.

"The glorious victory of Azerbaijan is a triumph of international law, justice, and the NAM values," the head of state noted.