Azerbaijan, in the course of carrying out “anti-terrorist measures” in Karabakh, has fully restored its sovereignty, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Monday during a joint press statement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is on a visit to Nakhichevan.
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“If three years ago, as a result of the second Karabakh war, we put an end to the occupation, on April 23 of this year we completely restored our territorial integrity by establishing a border checkpoint on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border in the direction of Lachin. Five days ago, we fully ensured and restored our sovereignty. In “As a result of anti-terrorism measures carried out in less than 24 hours, the Armenian army, illegally located on the territory of Azerbaijan, surrendered, accepted our conditions, and thus Azerbaijan fully ensured its state sovereignty,” Aliyev said.
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On September 19, Azerbaijan launched a military operation in Karabakh, calling it “anti-terrorist measures of a local nature” to restore the constitutional order. Yerevan characterized this as aggression, saying that there are no Armenian units in Karabakh. A day later, through the mediation of Russian peacekeepers, an agreement was reached on a ceasefire; among the conditions of the truce, in particular, the disarmament of Armenian forces and the withdrawal of heavy equipment from Karabakh were outlined. On September 21, in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh, 100 kilometers northeast of Stepanakert, a meeting of representatives of Karabakh Armenians with the Azerbaijani delegation was held, dedicated to the integration of the region into the republic.
