Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The main impediment for the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the non-constructive position of Armenia’s criminal leadership, which relies on its patrons, Azerbaijan’s Prime Minister Artur Rasizade said during the presentation of the government’s report at the Parliament on March 16.

He noted that Armenia is trying to protract the settlement of the problem in every possible way, and noted with regret that no serious progress was achieved in the settlement of the conflict.

Rasizade stressed that the head of state keeps under constant control this issue, which is the most painful for the country, and at all international events and meetings, the President requires solving this problemin the legal aspect and within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

“Taking into account the possibility of a military option, along with peace talks, in resolving the conflict, Azerbaijan, under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, relentlessly increases its military power, strengthens the army’s material and technical base, and pays special attention to its provision with modern weapons and ammunition,” the prime minister noted.

He further said that the heroic rebuff that Armenia received during its provocation in April 2016 once again demonstrated the power of the Azerbaijani army, which is growing year by year.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on the country. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

To this day, Armenia has not implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

Rasizade also touched upon the defense industry complex created in Azerbaijan over the past years, which is of great importance in strengthening the defense capacity of the country.

“The amount of funds allocated to the defense industry has been increased by 13.5 times,” he said. “The enterprises of the Defense Industry Ministry produce more than 1,200 types of products, including armored vehicles, drones, various types of small arms and other weapons.”

The prime minister also noted that the military products of Azerbaijan are already exported to foreign countries.

During his speech, Rasizade also said that Azerbaijan has achieved great success over the past years.

As a result of the measures taken over the past 14 years, Azerbaijan’s strategic currency reserves have grown 26.6 times up to $42 billion as of late 2017. Moreover, the poverty rate was reduced from 44.7 to 5.4 percent, while the life expectancy increased from 72.4 to 75.4 years, the prime minister noted.

“Over 1.9 million new jobs were created in the country during this period,” he added.

Rasizade also said that the Azerbaijan’s GDP grew 3.2 times, industrial production – 2.6 times, wages – 6.8 times, and per capita income increased by 7.2 times.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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