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President Ilham Aliyev has said that the current Armenian regime is responsible for the escalation of tension on the front line due to provocative actions committed by Pashinyan’s administration.

Aliyev made the remarks in an interview with Euronews TV channel on October 7.

“The current Armenian regime did everything in order to destroy the negotiation process. Exactly one year ago, Armenian prime Minister at the rally in the occupied area of Azerbaijan made a statement that ‘Karabakh is Armenia’ and that statement actually destroyed negotiation process. Because the principles which are on the table and which are the basis for settlement demand the return of the occupied territories to Azerbaijan.

“And when Armenian prime minister says that not a centimeter of land will return to Azerbaijan, when he says that ‘Karabakh is Armenia’, when they organize illegal settlement of foreign people on the occupied territories which is a brutal violation of Geneva Convention, they destroy negotiation process,” Aliyev said.

The president reminded that the negotiations had been going on since 1992 - for almost 30 years now and have resulted in no substantial progress.

“We were living with hopes, mediators were telling us that you should wait a little bit, there will be more constructive approach from Armenian side. But when this prime minister [Nikol Pashinyan] came to power, as a result of the coup d’état two years ago, he destroyed completely negotiation process. And I had meetings with him many times. But these meetings were absolutely senseless. And he told me that they are not going to give the territories back, they told me that Nagorno-Karabakh must be, how to say, adjusted to Armenia.

Armenia must refrain from maximalist position

“The Armenian government should change their position, should refrain from maximalist position, should stop telling that Karabakh is Armenia because this is not true and this is destroying negotiations process and of course, we are going back.”

Aliyev said that Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov will be in Geneva on October 8 to meet ambassadors of the Minsk Group.

“Armenian foreign minister was supposed to go there in the beginning of the month, but he ignored that. He is not there. Our foreign minister is there. It shows who wants negotiations and who wants just accusations against Azerbaijan."

The president reminded that Armenia attacked Azerbaijan three times - on July, August, and September recently.

“When we beat them on the battlefield, they call everywhere, they make a plea to everyone, ‘stop Azerbaijan’. We want to stop, but we want the occupation to stop. Therefore, the main message should be to Armenia, we are not on Armenian land, we are on our land. Our land for 27 years.”

Turkey not involved in conflict

Commenting on reports on Turkey’s alleged involvement in the ongoing war with Armenia, Aliyev said that this is fake news spread by Armenia to diminish the capacity of Azerbaijani army.

“We are fighting ourselves. Yes, we purchased weapons from Turkey, but not only. Our main supplier of weapons is not Turkey. And probably everybody knows about that. So, the fact that we buy modern Turkish equipment including the fighter drones should not be a problem for anyone. Because Armenia gets weapons free of charge. We pay for them and Armenia gets free of charge. Turkey in no other way is involved in the conflict.”

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