"I think what happened in Washington on the 8th of August is actually the end of the confrontation and the end of the standoff. We’ve been at war with Armenia for a long time. It was Armenia that occupied Azerbaijani territories since the beginning of the 1990s. At that time, Azerbaijan was very weak. We didn’t have an army, and Armenia had external supporters who backed them in the occupation of Azerbaijani territories," said Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in his interview with Al Arabiya TV channel, APA reports.
"As a result, almost 20 percent of our territories were occupied, and we had one million refugees. At that time, it was one of the highest ratios per capita; the population of Azerbaijan was 8 million, so one million were homeless.
The First Karabakh War ended in 1994 with a ceasefire, and we were engaged in a series of endless and, as we have seen, useless negotiations, which lasted until 2020 – when the Second Karabakh War started and we liberated our internationally recognized territories. Almost five years ago, during the 44-day Patriotic War, Azerbaijan restored justice, international law, and its dignity, and returned our lands. After that, there was a certain vacuum in the process, because at that time mediators did not know what they should do next. Once again, it was Azerbaijan that offered to start a peace process with Armenia. We initiated the format of negotiations and introduced a draft peace agreement. In fact, what was initialled in Washington on the 8th of August was based on the Azerbaijani vision of how interstate relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be framed.
So, the negotiations lasted, as I said, for several years and ended in Washington with the great support of President Trump and his team. Actually, I think that this is the end of the conflict, the end of the war. Formally, the peace agreement was not signed for one particular reason: there is still a provision in the Armenian constitution that casts doubt on Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
So, they will make an amendment, as far as we understand. As soon as this amendment to the constitution is made and territorial claims to Azerbaijan are deducted from the constitution, the formal peace agreement will be signed.
The fact that Azerbaijan and Armenia initialled this document at the White House, in front of President Trump, means that it’s the end of the war — a war that lasted in stages for more than 30 years — and it opens absolutely new opportunities for the South Caucasus region and the broader regions of Central Asia and the Middle East," the head of state noted.
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