Azerbaijan has opportunity to return occupied territories by force

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Though Azerbaijan has always supported a peaceful resolution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it also keeps the military option on the table.

Baku didn’t rule out the resolution of conflict through military means, if all other options are exhausted.

Azerbaijan has the opportunity to return the territories occupied in the course of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the early 1990s by force, said Ismail Aghakishiev, the head of the Center for Caucasian Studies at Moscow State University.

He made the remarks in an interview with "Kommersant" newspaper commenting on an appeal to the armed forces by Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov.

Hasanov recently evaluated the combat readiness of units and formations along the frontline. He stated during his visit to frontline units that “All personnel of the armed forces living with thoughts of revenge and victory are willing and able to fulfill their sacred duty to liberate our occupied lands.”

He said relying only on their strength, Azerbaijani soldiers will thrust out the enemy from the occupied territories and restore country’s territorial integrity. “No one should have doubt in this.”

Aghakishiev said Hasanov’s statements are not a threat, but a warning, stressing that Azerbaijan supports a peaceful solution to the conflict.

The expert noted that it is about the territorial integrity of the state. "One of the main functions of the state is to ensure its territorial integrity, it can be solved both by military and peaceful means," he said.

Today, despite the fact that Azerbaijan and the people are ready to solve the conflict by military means, first of all, a peaceful resolution must be explored, he believes.

"I think that an opportunity to resolve the conflict peacefully has not exhausted yet. Azerbaijan is ready, as well as three or four years ago it was ready, to return its territory by military means," Aghakishiev said.

He stressed that if the peaceful solution will not be possible, then the Azerbaijani Army is prepared to fulfill its task by engaging in military action.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict that emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since the war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian, and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.