‘If not peace, let it be war’: Aliyev says he won’t negotiate anymore with Armenia on Karabakh
BEIRUT, LEBANON (2:40 P.M.) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Tuesday that there can be no negotiations on Karabakh’s status.
“I have repeatedly said that we will not allow the creation of a second Armenian state in the original Azerbaijani lands,” Aliyev said in a speech to citizens broadcast by state TV channel AZTV.
He claimed: “I have repeatedly said that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan cannot be a subject for negotiations,” adding that “Azerbaijan will restore its territorial integrity,” noting that “if it is not peaceful, then it will be military.”
The Azerbaijani president concluded that “there is a single, multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian, progressive Azerbaijani state in which representatives of all religions live normally, in conditions of peace and mutual understanding, and we have a relationship with the Armenian people.”
A video clip has previously been spread showing people in Karabakh returning to their homes under Russian protection.