Azerbaijan says reserving right to free its occupied territories
By Sevindj Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency Â
September 11, 2004 Saturday
BARDA, Azerbaijan — Azerbaijani government envisions an increase of
defense spending in 2005, President Ilham Aliyev said Saturday during
a meeting with Azerbaijani refugees in the Barda district that borders
the much-troubled region of Nagorny Karabakh.
“This increase will strengthen our Armed Forces and will make it one
of the guarantors of settling the Karabakh conflict,” Aliiyev said.
That conflict in the mostly Armenian-populated Karabakh enclave
has been going on since 1988 along a pattern similar to most ethnic
conflicts on the territory of the former USSR.
Karabakh’s Armenians are trying to win independence from Azerbaijan. In
the early 1990’s, the tensions between the sides took the form of
open armed hostilities.
Efforts to settle the conflict have been made for years, but they
have produced small results so far.
Aliyev reiterated that Azeirbaijan is seeking a peaceful solution to
the conflict.
“As long as there is hope for that [peace settlement], we’ll continue
the talks, but if they prove ineffective, the Azerbaijanis will free
the occupied territories by any means,” he said. “We have all the
prerequisites for it – the patriotic spirit, mobilization of our
people, and the persistently growing economic potential”.
As he addressed a meeting with public representatives in Barda on the
same day, Aliyev said: “The people of Azerbaijan must be prepared to
liberate its occupied lands by force”.
“There is no possibility of making compromises in what concerns
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,” he said.