“Our relations with ECO member states are successfully developing,” the head of state emphasized, News.Az reports, citing AZERTAC.
President Ilham Aliyev also highlighted the ongoing large-scale reconstruction work in Azerbaijan's liberated territories.
“Extensive restoration and reconstruction efforts are currently underway across all of Karabakh and East Zangezur, liberated from occupation,” he said.
The head of state recalled that Armenia occupied nearly 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territories for almost 30 years, carried out ethnic cleansing, and displaced more than one million Azerbaijanis from their ancestral lands. The President emphasized that the Azerbaijani people and state never reconciled with the occupation.
“We repeatedly warned Armenia and its backers that if Armenia did not voluntarily withdraw from the occupied territories, we would restore our territorial integrity by military means. Unfortunately, Armenia and its supporters did not take our warnings seriously, and as a result, they faced the consequences,” President Ilham Aliyev added.
The president then touched upon the ongoing landmine threat in the liberated Azerbaijani territories.
“Armenia buried over one million mines in our territories. Since the Patriotic War, nearly 400 of our compatriots have been killed or seriously injured as a result of mine explosions,” he said.
The head of state noted that Azerbaijan is now building new cities and villages in the territories devastated by Armenia.
“The Great Return Program is being successfully implemented. To date, we have facilitated the return of former internally displaced persons to 16 cities and villages. Currently, over 50,000 people live, work, and study in the liberated territories,” President Ilham Aliyev emphasized.
The head of state also underlined that ensuring the rights of Western Azerbaijanis deported from Armenia is of great importance.
He added: “Last month, we highly appreciate the unanimous adoption by all 57 member states of a resolution supporting the right of return of Azerbaijanis forcibly displaced from Armenia at the session of the Council of Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation held in Istanbul.”
