«The best security guarantor for Armenian residents of Karabakh is President Ilham Aliyev» - Igor Korotchenko in the program «Dialogue with Tofik Abbasov»

Trend reports that a scheduled release of the analytical video project «Dialogue with Tofik Abbasov» went on air on the Baku Network expert platform. The guest on the program was Igor Korotchenko, General Director of the Caspian Institute of Strategic Studies.

As Korotchenko said, the best security guarantor for Armenian residents of Karabakh is President Ilham Aliyev, a person who stands by his words, who has international authority.

«Azerbaijan is not just one of many countries, it is the state that had won in the second Karabakh war, that heads the Non-Aligned Movement and during Azerbaijan’s chairmanship this organization progressed to a new stage. Azerbaijan is an EU energy security guarantor and, ultimately, it is a country that looks into the future. It is beyond doubt that if the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, with his experience, with his intellect, with his strategic goal-setting, says that it will be so, it means that it will be exactly so. Of course, Baku will never let anyone come close to this problem», he said.

Korotchenko noted that the Karabakh economic region is an inalienable part of Azerbaijan and, as the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev had said many times, Baku considers Armenians compactly living in Karabakh as citizens of Azerbaijan.

«Generally, Azerbaijan’s approach features not only pragmatism, but also humanism and, at the same time, a desire to do its best to turn over the pages of this blood-drenched history that had lasted for 30 years. Azerbaijan won in the second Karabakh, defeated Armenia and forced it to surrender. But then Azerbaijan conducted itself in a very noble manner by stretching a hand and saying that, first, it wants to sign a peace agreement based on the five fundamental principles that President Ilham Aliyev had proposed in order to have inter-state relations based on the new realities according to which the two countries – Azerbaijan and Armenia – will assume clear commitments. After delimitation and demarcation of the state border all issues will be resolved. Baku said clearly that contrary to the insinuations about «ethnic cleansing» and «genocide» it is ready for peaceful integration of Armenian residents of Karabakh. Moreover, Baku appointed a special envoy who met with representatives of Armenian residents of Karabakh and said that Baku is ready to discuss issues. After that a new step was made when representatives of Armenian residents of Karabakh were invited to Baku to begin concrete negotiations on peaceful integration», he stressed.

Korotchenko believes that a detailed road map should be made to integrate Armenian residents of Karabakh. «In exercising reintegration and establishing peace the basic principle is the withdrawal of Armenian armed formations from the Karabakh territory, their disarmament», he added.

Speaking about the refusal of the Armenian side to use the Aghdam-Khankendi road for humanitarian cargoes Korotchenko underscored that this exactly is the genocide of Armenians that the «leadership» of separatists engineers in Khankendi.

«There it is, pure and simple genocide of Armenians that the Armenians themselves contrive against their compatriots. I am absolutely sure that all these video footages with allegations about famine in this region are nothing but staged plays. We all perfectly know how all this is done. There is an option of supplying any goods, equipment and food via Aghdam. But they deliberately don’t agree to that because this is the way towards reintegration. Reintegration into the Azerbaijani society is the path of the Armenian residents of Karabakh towards the bright future», he underlined.