Aliyev Highlights the Difference Between Pashinyan and His Predecessors

“The document (the peace agreement) that will be signed... is significant. However, I believe it is especially important for us considering Armenia's 30 years of reluctance to liberate even one centimeter of our land. This reluctance is not limited to the leaders of the previous Karabakh clans who became presidents, but is also manifested by Pashinyan himself, when in 2019 he declared in Khankendi (Stepanakert) that ‘Karabakh is Armenia, and that’s it.’ What did he mean by that? No one asks him. And when his Minister of Defense stated in 2019 that ‘a new war will be for new territories,’ threatening Azerbaijan with occupation, that was not the Kocharyan-Sargsyan gang. It was Pashinyan,” said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in response to a question from Denis Sammut, director of the Links Europe Foundation (Netherlands).

“And now he (Nikol Pashinyan) says, ‘Karabakh is Azerbaijan.’ Because we won the war, and not because he changed his ideology. The ideology remains the same; they are still living by it. The only difference between the Armenian authorities and the opposition is that the former clearly understand that if they continue to dispute our territorial integrity, we will crush them again, regardless of who stands behind them. It does not matter what anyone tells them in that famous, beautiful European capital. The opposition does it because they want to overthrow Pashinyan; they want that to happen. They want him to make this mistake, and then take power. Therefore, we need guarantees—guarantees that we can see with our own eyes. Thus, this will be the best factor for peace in the Caucasus,” the head of the opposing country stated.