We brought enemy to its knees, forced it to wave white flag and leave Kalbajar: Ilham Aliyev

In a matter of 44 days, we drove the enemy out of our lands, brought it to its knees, forced it to wave the white flag and leave Kalbajar of its own accord, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at a solemn ceremony to hand over the battle flag to the commando military unit as part of his visit to Kalbajar district, Report informs, citing AZERTAC.

"We attached great importance to patriotism. Many measures have been taken to educate the younger generation in the spirit of patriotism, and we have achieved this. Today, the youth of Azerbaijan are patriotic and attached to their Motherland, and the Patriotic War showed this to the whole world. The main factor that led us to the Victory was the national spirit, dignity, love of the Motherland, and this was done by representatives of the younger generation, the young people who grew up in the years of independence. They did so by sacrificing their lives and facing death. The memory of our dear martyrs will always live in our hearts. Therefore, patriotism, discipline, economic power, political standing, and, of course, the supply of our Armed Forces with modern weapons – it was a combination of all these factors that preconditioned the outcome of the second Karabakh war. In a matter of 44 days, we drove the enemy out of our lands, brought it to its knees, forced it to wave the white flag and leave Kalbajar of its own accord. Kalbajar was liberated without a single shot being fired. We would have liberated Kalbajar anyway because the back of the Armenian army had already been broken, but there would have been many losses. In the 44 days of the war, we brought the Armenian army to a situation in which they had no other option," Ilham Aliyev said.