President of Azerbaijan: ‘There are still certain groups hiding in this territory’

Today, the process of cleansing the territories from bandit gangs is underway. According to our data, there are still certain groups hiding in this territory, said the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, as he met with the participants of the 53rd meeting of the Council of Heads of Security Agencies and Special Services of the CIS member countries, Report informs, citing AZERTAC.

“Our repeated appeals to Armenia to put an end to territorial claims to Azerbaijan received a very strange response, which I would also like to inform you about. A year ago, last October, at a meeting of the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan with international partners, a statement was adopted, in which both countries recognized each other's territorial integrity and commitment to the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration, which confirmed the territorial integrity of our countries. We considered this an important step on the part of Armenia, which would finally give up its territorial claims to Azerbaijan. But, unfortunately, our hopes were in vain. Recognizing the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in words and on paper, the Armenian leadership actually did the exact opposite. Azerbaijan's repeated appeals to give up provocative actions, unfortunately, were not taken seriously. The situation aggravated even more when on September 2 of this year, the Armenian prime minister sent a letter of congratulation on the anniversary of the establishment of the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic”. This was a crossing of a red line, which Azerbaijan, naturally, could not tolerate. It was an obvious claim to our territory. On September 9, the so-called authorities of the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh held elections, chose a new leader, which represented complete disregard for the existing realities, and left Azerbaijan with no other option but to conduct anti-terrorist measures on September 19 and fully restore its sovereignty. As a result of the operation, which lasted less than a day, the Armenian army in Karabakh was completely disarmed, the contingent of many thousands – there were from 10,000 to 15,000 of them – was disarmed and full control over the territory was established. At the same time, we have already published a plan for the reintegration of the Armenian population of Karabakh, which is also available on the Internet. An appeal was made to the Armenian population to stay in their homes, because our operation was very targeted. Civilian infrastructure, civilian facilities and civilians were not harmed and, as I said, the whole operation lasted less than 24 hours. It was enough for the illegal armed formations of Armenia to be completely demoralized and, in fact, to surrender. Today, the process of cleansing the territories from bandit gangs is underway. According to our data, there are still certain groups hiding in this territory. After September 20, there were armed provocations in Karabakh. The territory is quite large, with mountains and forests, so we will need time to completely clear the territory from these gangs. This is basically the history of the issue,” the head of state said.