Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev Friday praised his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for declaring that “Karabakh is Azerbaijan.” Aliyev also hailed Putin’s earlier statement that the Karabakh conflict is over and “part of history.”

He elaborated by saying that with his statements, Putin is cautioning “foreign circles” aiming to derail the November 9 agreement, adding that “saboteurs are dissatisfied with Russia’s leading role in the ceasefire.”

During his annual press conference on Thursday, Putin said, “from an international legal perspective, all these territories are an integral part of the Republic of Azerbaijan.” He added that Armenia, itself, hasn’t recognized Karabakh’s independence and based on international legal standpoint Nagorno-Karabakh is also Azerbaijan. The Russian leader also stressed that Karabakh’s status should not change, saying the issue of its “definition” should be solved in the future.

“In an interview with the media yesterday, Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] once again pointed out that Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. This is not the first statement of this kind. I believe this is a very important statement. It is important for those revanchist forces in Armenia, which are trying to revise the conditions of the statement of November 9,” Aliyev said, according to TASS, on Friday when addressing a virtual conference of CIS leaders.

“Unfortunately, there are such forces, and this is a very important signal to those who are trying to prevent the implementation of that statement. We saw such attempts both during the war and after the statement was signed,” Aliyev emphasized.

According to the Azerbaijani president, some “foreign circles” that are dissatisfied with Russia’s leading role in the ceasefire would similarly like to revise the terms of the deal.

“We saw attempts by certain foreign circles, which were dissatisfied with the fact that they stayed on the sidelines, dissatisfied with the fact that Russia was instrumental in achieving the ceasefire. They tried to muddy the waters in every possible way, and, unfortunately, they are pushing ahead with their attempts. This is especially true of the situation in Armenia. [They are seeking] to use certain levers, various infrastructure that has been created in Armenia, including the Soros infrastructure, in order to incite unrest in Armenian society and essentially to derail that statement,” Aliyev said.

“I would like to once again thank Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin for such active participation and [his] enormous contribution to the resolution of this conflict,” he added.

“I also fully agree with Vladimir Putin that whenever we talk about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, we must talk about what happened in the past. This is already history,” Aliyev declared during his remarks at the Council of Heads of States of the CIS.

According to Aliyev, the Armenian leadership’s steps and actions were targeted at escalation of the situation. “As far as the Prime Minister of Armenia is concerned, while he was in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in 2019, he declared that “Karabakh is Armenia, period.” Thus, the Armenian leadership’s steps and actions were targeted at escalation of the situation and were aimed at inciting the Azerbaijani party’s response operations and hindering the negotiation process,” Aliyev stressed.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not attend the CIS meeting. His office said that the CIS Council was informed about, adding that the Pashinyan’s father had passed away a day before.