Azernews.Az

President Ilham Aliyev has said Azerbaijan will free its Armenia-occupied territories and "our only wish is to do this without bloodshed".

In a recent interview with Turkey’s TRT TV channel, President Aliyev reminded that the UN Security Council’s four resolutions urging an unconditional pullout of Armenian armed forces have not been implemented to date.

"Though the decisions have been passed, there is a problem with enforcing them," Aliyev said. "Under pressure from the Armenian lobby, the world community has been turning a deaf ear to the Nagorno Karabakh problem for 20 years… The UN SC passes decisions and immediately enforces them. But when it comes to us, this injustice has persisted for 20 years."

Azerbaijan and Armenia, its neighbor in the South Caucasus region, fought a brutal war in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since a fragile ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks, brokered by US, Russian and French mediators through the OSCE Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far.

Aliyev said further that unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia does not see a bright future ahead.

"Azerbaijan, which has achieved tremendous successes -- both economically and politically -- binds hopes with its future, while Armenia sees no light at the end of the tunnel. A bleak future is in store for them."

According to the president, Azerbaijan’s clout on the world stage is increasing by the day, while the population of Armenia, which is dwindling, "lives in fear".

"They know that the Azerbaijani army can easily take back Karabakh," Aliyev said. "But we don’t want blood to be shed again. We are trying to resolve the issue peacefully."

This story is published by AzerNEWS Weekly under a project funded by the Foundation for State Assistance to the Development of the Media under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.