President Ilham Aliyev met with UN Secretary General through videoconferencing

On the initiative of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a meeting through videoconferencing was held between him and President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Report says.

President Ilham Aliyev provided information about the military provocation committed by Armenia against Azerbaijan yesterday, Report says. He noted that on 27 September, Armenia used heavy artillery to fire on the Azerbaijani Armed Forces positions and settlements located along the line of contact. As a result of the attack, Azerbaijani civilians and servicemen were killed. The Azerbaijani side is conducting a successful counter-offensive operation in self-defense.

The head of state emphasized that this was not the first time the Armenian side had committed a military provocation. In particular, the occupying country perpetrated a similar provocation on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border in July this year. Then, in August, an Armenian sabotage group attempted to cross the line of contact. Simultaneously, Armenia is illegally resettling foreign nationals from other countries in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which represents a flagrant violation of international law under the Geneva Convention.

The President of Azerbaijan also noted that the Armenian prime minister had created armed groups of volunteers consisting of tens of thousands of civilians forced to participate in military operations against Azerbaijan.
During the conversation, President Ilham Aliyev said he had talked about Armenia's preparations for a new war in his speech at the general debates of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

The head of state said that the Armenian leadership was deliberately disrupting the negotiations. The Armenian leadership statement that "Nagorno-Karabakh is Armenia" dealt a severe blow to the talks. The information that "Azerbaijan should hold talks with Nagorno-Karabakh" is an attempt to change the talks' format, which is also unacceptable, as confirmed by the Minsk Group's leadership.

Ilham Aliyev said the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved only within the framework of international law and Azerbaijan's territorial integrity basis of relevant UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate, unconditional and complete withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied territories.

During the conversation, the sides also recalled the Special Session of the UN General Assembly in response to COVID-19 initiated by Azerbaijan. The head of state thanked the UN Secretary-General for supporting this initiative. President Ilham Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan would continue to spare no international arena efforts to combat COVID-19.

The parties also discussed issues related to the prospects for cooperation between Azerbaijan and the UN during a video conference.