Interview of Ilham Aliyev to Al Arabiya: The President marked a new era in the history of the South Caucasus

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev gave an exclusive interview to Saudi Arabia's Al Arabiya TV channel, which addressed a number of current issues.

This interview can rightfully be considered programmatic because the head of state, having documented Azerbaijan's achievements on the political track, outlined a "roadmap" for the country's further development in the changed realities, writes the newspaper "Caspiy".

A distinctive feature of this meeting was also that it took place after the signing of an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan with the support of US President Donald Trump and specifically concerned this important event. The conversation also touched on Azerbaijan's role in the South Caucasus, and between East and West in general.

The President of Azerbaijan also outlined ways to normalize relations between Baku and Moscow, presenting his vision for solving this problem.

Guarantee of peace and stability

What happened in Washington on August 8, the President of Azerbaijan called the end of confrontation and a way out of the deadlock. Speaking about Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan, as a result of which almost 20% of our territories were occupied by Armenia and we had one million refugees and internally displaced persons, the head of state noted that the first Karabakh war ended in 1994 with a ceasefire and we entered into a series of endless and useless negotiations that lasted until 2020. Until the moment when "almost five years ago, during the 44-day Patriotic War, Azerbaijan restored justice, international law and its own dignity by reclaiming its lands." It was Azerbaijan that proposed to launch a peace process with Armenia. "In essence, the document initialed in Washington on August 8 is based on the Azerbaijani version of the vision for settling interstate relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan," said Ilham Aliyev, noting that the negotiations lasted several years and concluded in Washington with the active support of President Trump and his team. And this is indeed the end of the conflict, the end of the war.

A peace agreement was not signed because Armenia's constitution still contains a provision that questions Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. As soon as territorial claims against Azerbaijan are removed, that is, when the Armenian side makes an amendment, an official peace agreement will be signed.

This will open completely new opportunities for the South Caucasus and the wider region of Central Asia and the Middle East.

The end of the OSCE Minsk Group

The dissolution of the Minsk Group is one of the conditions put forward by Azerbaijan at the very first stages of negotiations. It was created by the OSCE in 1992 to resolve the Karabakh conflict. Since Armenia has officially recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, the legal existence of the Minsk Group is absurd, according to the President of Azerbaijan. "This logic formed the basis of our position, and it took us a lot of time and effort to convince Armenia to agree that both sides should write a letter to the OSCE about dissolving the Minsk Group, which happened in the presence of President Trump," said the head of state, noting that the process has begun, and this will be the legal death of the Minsk Group.

Regarding internally displaced persons during the first Karabakh war, the President stated that Armenia did not have any, "because Azerbaijan did not occupy Armenian territory. They occupied our territory