BEIRUT, LEBANON (9:20 P.M.) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Friday that Baku is ready to establish normal relations with Yerevan if “healthy powers” come to power in Armenia.
“There is now a deep internal crisis in Armenia,” Aliyev said in a speech to the Azerbaijani people, adding that “Perhaps, after this crisis, healthy forces will come to power in Armenia. If this is the case, then we are ready for normal relations.”
The Azerbaijani president declared that the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh “has been bordered.” In this regard, he added, “Thus, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno Karabakh has become a thing of the past, and this is what international experts also indicate, that Azerbaijan, after achieving a glorious victory on the battlefield, has also achieved its goal on the political arena.”
Aliyev questioned the information indicating that there are 90,000 Armenian refugees from Karabakh, noting that the maximum number for refugees is 65,000.
“Now they claim that there are 90,000 Armenians who left Nagorno Karabakh. It is a lie. Before the second Karabakh war, no more than 60-65,000 people lived in the Nagorno Karabakh region, and the occupied territories, how did we know this? We have information and sources. In this region, this is one of the reasons for our success.”
It is noteworthy to mention that, in early November, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed an agreement mediated by Moscow that ended the armed conflict around the Karabakh region after more than six weeks of clashes, and one of the conditions of the agreement is that Russia deploy peace-keeping forces in the disputed region.
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