“Three years ago, we completed the main task of our life. We restored our territorial integrity, which was violated for almost 30 years. We suffered aggression, occupation, ethnic cleansing, which was a big tragedy for our nation and a big humanitarian catastrophe. We tried for many years to find a peaceful solution to the conflict and to put an end to occupation by peaceful means,” said President Ilham Aliyev as he addressed the opening ceremony of the 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku.

“For 28 years, we were strongly committed to negotiation process, but unfortunately, we clearly realize that by peaceful means, it is not possible to do. So, we used our right for self-defense, we used the right, which is given to every country by the UN Charter - right for self-defense - and liberated our territories three years ago, and put an end to occupation. Just the less than one months ago, we fully restored our sovereignty over the country, all over the country,” the head of state underlined.

“Unfortunately, international organizations, which were obliged to put an end to occupation, did not produce any results. The United Nations Security Council adopted four resolutions demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian forces from our territories, but these resolutions were not implemented for 27 years. We implemented those resolutions ourselves, sacrificing the lives of our people,” the President of Azerbaijan added.