Azerbaijani leader: We were threatened that if war breaks out, we will lose land again

"The Karabakh factor was at the heart of the pressure and provocations against us. Because during the presidency, however, there were such theses that, yes, you should forget about Karabakh, you should accept this situation, so you should negotiate with Armenia and start cooperation," President Ilham Aliyev said at a meeting with representatives of the Jabrayil community on October 4.

"It has been repeatedly suggested that Azerbaijan undertake responsibility not to use force. I refused every time, every time! Last time in Vienna after the April war. After the defeat, the United States, the co-chair of the Minsk Group, hastily organized this meeting in Vienna to support Armenia. When I came to that meeting, the foreign ministers of the Minsk Group gave me a protocol, that is, the text of a statement. I said there that you would have given it a day or two ago if you had prepared it. Why do you make a fait accompli? I saw that there are provisions that do not benefit us, including the non-use of force. I refused and said that you accept what you want, I will not sign it. I mean, in the middle of all the pressure was that we deal with internal problems so that Karabakh is forgotten and Armenia owns these lands forever.

Representatives of some foreign countries said that you have to consider the reality, you have lost the war, no one let to start a new war, we will not, the neighboring countries will not. We were threatened that if the war broke out, we would lose land again. The former Minister of Defense of Armenia, who is in prison today for theft, threatened us. America also threatened. So did he say it on his own? No! There were those who said that we should reconcile with this situation, give up these lands, say, now cooperate with Armenia. I said that we would never cooperate, I said that we would bring down Armenia economically at any cost.

"All oil and gas pipelines, transport lines, railways - all bypassed Armenia. That is, we finally overthrew Armenia. It could no longer compete with us economically and militarily. It could not buy the weapons it wanted, although they were free. Thus, the internal crisis in Armenia was inevitable, the people rose up against the hated Sargsyan regime, and change took place. I said then, yes, we had a hand in that change, of course, not directly. We must not lie. Not directly, but indirectly. If Armenia was a developing country, would the people stand up? Of course not. Therefore, our role in this change of government was quite significant. I said that our goal is to liberate the lands at any cost, and we went to the war of death, everyone knows that. Because who could say which country will act how. I could not give this guarantee. We were, in fact, in a life-and-death battle. Our patience was exhausted," the head of state stressed.