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Elnur Enveroglu

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The new year 2024 entered as a year of new victories and achievements for Azerbaijan. The most important thing is that thirty years of occupation in the history of the country completely vanished. To answer the question of what 2023 was remembered for, many decisive and important events can be touched upon. Overall, this is a successful result of both domestic and foreign policy under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev commented on Azerbaijan's achievements in the last 20 years from a broad perspective during an interview with Azerbaijani television channels.
First, the head of state reminded the people of his address when he was elected president for the first time 20 years ago, and said that the people are always right in their choices.

“The history of the last 20 years is obvious, and the key issue here is that the people of Azerbaijan made the right choice back in 2003,” the president said while answering questions in his interview.

President Ilham Aliyev mentioned a number of serious points while recalling the political course of Azerbaijan over the past 30 years. The political processes from 1993 to 2003, which is the main political structure established during the leadership of National Leader Heydar Aliyev to independent Azerbaijan, and the successful continuation of that political course from 2003 to today. Indeed, managing this established order like clockwork requires a great deal of knowledge, skill and courage. Courage is in particular important because it requires not taking a step back when making the right decisions. President Ilham Aliyev literally went down in history as one of the most courageous leaders of his time. Azerbaijan achieved a great victory against the West-supported system of Armenia, which kept lands under occupation for 30 over years.

War does not bring good to any country or people. Even if you are always on the winning side, you will definitely suffer from the harmful aspects of war at some point. The Garabagh problem was at such a peak that there was no point in taking a step back in this direction. The unity of the people and the bold decisions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief were a real incentive to realize the glorious moment of victory ahead. President Ilham Aliyev linked the latest victory, that is, Azerbaijan's complete possession of its sovereign territories, to the anti-terrorist measures carried out in September. In his interview, he emphasized that the events of September were decisive.

“The events of September, of course, should not be taken out of the overall context. In other words, the path we followed until September was a consistent path, a goal-oriented path, the right path. From the point of view of the processes unfolding in our country at the political or military level, this event was the exclamation mark, as it were, of all the work we had done. Today, we are entering 2024 as a nation that has fully restored its sovereignty. I believe that the new era of our modern history began exactly after September 20,” the head of state said.

The steps to be taken towards the future for Azerbaijan starting from 2024 have already been determined. The most priority of these is the resettlement of IDPs to liberated and reconstructed areas. In this regard, President Ilham Aliyev noted that residents will be relocated to regions belonging to Garabagh and Eastern Zangazur during this and the next year of 2025. The main reason for this is that Azerbaijan has been carrying out large-scale infrastructure projects since 2020. Azerbaijan is implementing a huge project almost at the expense of its own budget, and this is an example of the serious importance that the state of Azerbaijan attaches to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the future well-being of the population that will live there.

“All these infrastructure projects allow us the opportunity to return a larger number of former IDPs to their ancestral lands this year, and there are five cities they will return to this year – the cities of Shusha, Jabrayil, Kalbajar, Khankendi, and Khojaly,” the President said, adding that “former IDPs are expected to return to the cities of Aghdam, Zangilan and Gubadli in 2025.”

Azerbaijan does not leave out any historical events and territories. The settlement of the Garabagh issue does not mean the end of the Armenian occupation. First of all, the process of border delimitation and demarcation between Azerbaijan and Armenia should be completed. Later, the eight villages of Azerbaijan remaining in the territories of Armenia should be returned to Azerbaijan. President Ilham Aliyev noted that he discussed these issues with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during an on-step meeting in St. Petersburg and will return to the issue next month.

“The issue of the eight villages under occupation is always on the agenda today. Besides, this issue was discussed during my contacts with the prime minister of Armenia, including the last conversation on foot in St. Petersburg. I raised this issue, and this issue is also on the agenda of commissions dealing with delimitation. I should also inform you that the next meeting of the commissions is scheduled for this month, and this issue is on the agenda: the delimitation issue of that region, the Gazakh-Tovuz region,” President Ilham Aliyev noted.

In addition, in his interview, President Ilham Aliyev also gave special messages to some states, organisations and institutions that are trying to obstruct the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as the opening of the Zangazur corridor, which serves the economic well-being of the region and many interested parties, and are trying to speak threatening language with Azerbaijan. It is clear that the forces trying to use Armenia as a tool for the continuation of the conflict in the South Caucasus cannot make any contribution to peace. The fact that Armenia relies on them and acts on the basis of unstable decisions is a serious threat to the security of both its country and the South Caucasus. In addition, as the head of state noted, the blocking of connection between the two Azerbaijani territories, i.e, Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan means that Armenia will remain a landlocked state forever.

In this regard, it is of particular importance that Europe takes more correct steps and makes some changes in its political course. President Ilham Aliyev openly responded to the European Parliament leadership's decision to cut ties with Azerbaijan in all areas and terminate gas export agreements:
“If our gas supply to Europe is interrupted for whatever reason, many countries will be in a more difficult situation, and everyone in Europe should understand this, including the president of the European Parliament who makes such irresponsible statements.”

Thus, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, in his interview, once again emphasized his special and important messages from different directions to the forces that interfered from outside and could not digest the successes of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is true to its word and always stands by its decisions. The coming years will give a green light to the way Azerbaijan is moving forward to become an even more powerful state.

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Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews’ Deputy Editor-in-Chief, follow him on @ElnurMammadli1

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