«?zerbaijan is very strong and Armenia will not withstand its pressure. Nevertheless, we do not want war, as a great number of people may die. I believe, earlier or later we will return our lands.
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Let nobody has doubts in this respect”, the interview of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev with the Turkish “Hurriet” newspaper, published on 2 September, reads, Trend reports.
«Each Azerbaijani is deeply confident, the day will come, when the occupied lands will be freed, and the banner of Azerbaijan will flutter again over Karabakh”, President Ilham Aliyev emphasized, having also commented on the results of the meeting with the Armenian President Kocharyan in Kazan. «There are no results so far. The Armenians expect we will give them independence. However, it is impossible. The first priority for us is to preserve the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. I told Kocharyan, we are ready to guarantee the security of the Armenian community of Karabakh. I stressed, Baku will not allow the community to face any danger”, Ilham Aliyev said and added, “however, they (the Armed Forces of Armenia) do not want to free our lands”.
At the same time President Ilham Aliyev noted, that during the recent telephone talk the US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice stated, Washington wants the sides to come to the conflict settlement. «I do not understand, why Armenia, being an occupier country is not punished, although, undoubtedly, I also understand, the Armenian lobby is rather strong. The present situation is extremely unfair”, Aliyev said. He noted, after this conversation I felt some softening in the position of Kocharyan, although it is not sufficient for the problem settlement.
«We took all possible moves. However, Armenia did not take heed of the world public opinion. Over 1 million citizens of Azerbaijan remained homeless. The West stands for the soonest settlement of the conflict. We will do our utmost for that”, Aliyev summarized.