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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received a group of servicemen on the anniversary of the April victories of the Azerbaijani Army in Baku on March 31, Azertac reported.

The April battles are a glorious military victory showing the power of the Azerbaijani state, people and army, President Aliyev said addressing the event.

The president said that today Azerbaijan’s flag flies in the Fuzuli, Jabrayil and Agdere districts’ territories liberated from the Armenian occupation in the April battles.

These battles show that the Azerbaijani people and state will never reconcile to the occupation, and will restore Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity at all costs, he noted.

President Aliyev added that the April battles showed the professionalism of the Azerbaijani army.

“Our army took strategic positions by conducting a counter-attack from unfavorable positions. Today these strategic heights, positions, territories liberated from the occupation allow us to completely control the situation on the line of contact and take the measures we want,” noted the president.

He added that the April battles should be included in military textbooks.

The April battles, in terms of both professionalism and patriotism, once again showed that the Azerbaijanis are a heroic people.

“They showed once again that we won’t reconcile to this situation,” said President Aliyev.

The April battles demonstrated that the unity of people and government in Azerbaijan is ensured at the highest level, he added.

The president further added that during the April battles the Armenians appealed to international organizations, different countries so that the battles end as soon as possible.

“Then they accused several countries of not helping them. But the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is our internal affair. The Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized by the entire world, co-chair countries of the Minsk Group as an integral part of Azerbaijan. What is happening and what may happen in the Nagorno-Karabakh and all the occupied lands is our internal affair. No international organization or country can interfere with our internal affair,” noted the president.

“During the April battles the Armenian leadership was completely exposed because they suffered a heavy defeat and did not receive any political support. But, they relied on that support too much. And when they did not receive that support they, as usual, started to accuse different countries. At the end of the day, they were forced to admit their defeat in the April battles. First, they said that they did not lose the lands. Then they said that these lands are unimportant. Then they said that they will retake these territories. All this is totally untrue. The Armenian leadership has put itself in such a ridiculous situation that Armenia still feels grave consequences of this,” added President Aliyev.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted in April 2016 bringing Armenia and Azerbaijan face to face once again after years of “silence”.

The situation on the frontline aggravated on April 2 after the Armenian military units in the occupied lands began shelling Azerbaijan’s positions. To protect civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched counter attacks and as a result, the Azerbaijani troops retook hills around the village of Talish, as well as Seysulan settlement, and also took over Lele Tepe hill located in the direction of Fizuli region.

Azerbaijan and Armenia declared a truce brokered by Russia on April 5.

Over 320 Armenian servicemen were killed, more than 500 Armenian soldiers were injured, 30 enemy tanks and other armored vehicles, as well as more than 25 artillery pieces were destroyed during the counter attacks of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported.

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