Aliyev Is Finally In Khankendi, The Center Of Nagorno-Karabakh!

This trip was Aliyev’s first official visit to Khankendi (Stepanakert) since Nagorno-Karabakh surrendered to Azerbaijan in late September.

While trampling the flag of Artsakh, Ilham Aliyev visited Khankendi, Asgeran Castle, Fozuli, Khojali and Aghdara (Martakert), and gave two speeches and expressed important points.

Aliyev visited the administrative buildings of the Nagorno-Karabakh government (Artsakh) in the city of Khankendi (Stepanakert) and gave a speech in front of the building.

Most of the content of Aliyev’s speech was devoted to insulting the Armenian leaders of the Nagorno-Karabakh government and threatening those political figures in the Republic of Armenia who are thinking of revenge. He also praised the policies of his father Heydar Aliyev during the Soviet era and added: “Armenians and Azerbaijanis lived peacefully next to each other in the 60s and 80s and there was no difference between them. He did many measures for the economic and social prosperity of Karabagh.”

This phrase can be considered a kind of sarcasm to the competing political currents in Azerbaijan, of which the Popular Front of Azerbaijan Party is at the head. The explanation is that Aliyev has done this many times in the past years.

Immediately after this speech, political parties in Azerbaijan overtook each other in drafting supportive and laudatory statements addressed to the president of this country.

Also, the state media of Azerbaijan published a video of the conversation between Ilham Aliyev and a reporter in the city of Fozuli, which clearly shows Aliyev’s retreat from the issue of Zangezur Corridor. He said: “We are not greedy for anyone’s land and we will not return to Zangezur with a tank. Our return will be friendly.”

It is worth mentioning that, Azerbaijan by carrying out a one-day military operation on 19-20 September, forced the government of Nagorno-Karabakh to accept the conditions of Baku, and finally the Nagorno-Karabakh government was completely dissolved and all regions of the Nagorno-Karabakh returned to the control of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Read more: Nagorno-Karabakh Government To Be Dissolved

After these events, about 100,000 Armenian residents of Stepanakert and other regions of Nagorno-Karabakh refused to accept the citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan and fled to Armenia. There is no exact information on the number of Armenians remaining in Nagorno-Karabakh, but it is said that around 1,000 Armenians remained in the region.