At the limited-format meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State, which was held in Bishkek on September 16, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan complained about Azerbaijan, referring to the events that took place on the front line this April. He alleged that Azerbaijan violated a truce regime during these events.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was next in alphabetical order after the Armenian President to take the floor. President Ilham Aliyev asked the Belarusian President for permission to speak. As Alexander Lukashenko did not object President Ilham Aliyev took the floor and gave a compelling and tough response to the Armenian President:

President Ilham Aliyev: I deemed it my duty to comment on the Armenian President’s remarks. I did not consider it necessary to talk about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution here as this problem is addressed by other international organizations. But when I heard another complaint of the Armenian side, I deemed it my duty to comment on this.

Armenia has already bothered all the international organizations with those complaints. Situation is so paradoxical, as you can imagine: Armenia occupied territory of a sovereign state, violated its territorial integrity, expelled local Azerbaijani population from the Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, making more than one million people refugees and IDPs, destroyed everything in the occupied lands, including historical, religious, cultural monuments and all the infrastructure, which was evidenced by the reports of two OSCE missions. Then Armenia has just pretended to engage in the negotiations process for more than 20 years. Moreover Armenia periodically makes different provocations to make this process eternal. One of these provocations took place this April. Over 500 houses of Azerbaijani civilians were shelled from the Armenian artillery, more than 100 houses were destroyed, nearly 10 civilians, including children, were killed, died.

International organizations have a clear understanding of how this problem must be solved. There is a supreme international body – United Nations Security Council. It is the highest international organization. The Security Council adopted four resolutions in early 1990s. These documents demand unconditional and immediate withdrawal of the occupant Armenian forces from Azerbaijan`s territory. These resolutions remain unfulfilled. Armenia disregards them and tries to create a new reality by artificially changing the administrative borders of former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast and illegally resettling in that area. It is absolutely illegal. It is a crime, and this crime has continued up to the present time.

We are committed to a peace process. We work constructively. We have a Minsk Group format, but the Armenian side misuses this format just to make the negotiations continue for ever. They do not want peace. They just want to keep our territories under control and to accuse Azerbaijan everywhere of violating something. We are the aggrieved party. We did not occupy anybody`s territory. It is our territory, 20 per cent of Azerbaijan`s internationally-recognized territory, that has been under occupation. This is the reality. Therefore with reference to the Armenian President`s another inappropriate complaint, I deemed it my duty to bring this to the attention of our colleagues once again.

Serzh Sargsyan: It makes no sense to respond to a lie.

Ilham Aliyev: I have already responded to a lie.