During the 30 years that Azerbaijan's territories were under occupation, pointless negotiations were repeatedly conducted, President Ilham Aliyev said during his speech at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the Islamic Development Bank Group, Report informs.
Referring to the former OSCE Minsk Group, the head of state stated that their sole goal was to maintain Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territories.
"I mean the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, three countries, three permanent members of the UN Security Council-France, Russia, United States-and can you imagine that these countries could not force Armenia to liberate Azerbaijani territory? No, of course not. They didn't want. They wanted our land to be under Armenian occupation. That was a joint decision, but we changed those plans.
We've been very hopeful in the beginning of the negotiation process, and me personally. I'm the President since 2003, and for 17 years I was involved, as I already said, in this useless, as it turned out, negotiations, trying to find a peaceful solution, trying to persuade-you know, big countries-that truth is on our side: "We are right. We are occupied. Look at the map. Look where Armenian forces are standing on our territory." And what we heard in response? "Go and agree." One message. Second message: there is no military solution. Third message: you cannot start a war. Fourth message: if you start war, you will be sanctioned, and many more," he added.
