Ilham Aliyev: As an occupied country, we would never accept violations of our people's rights

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that in recent years the main goal has been restoring Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and liberating the territories occupied by Armenia. Report.az reported that Aliyev made the remarks in Baku at the opening ceremony of the VII World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, held under the theme 'Dialogue for a Shared Future'.

Aliyev said negotiations over the years produced no result, and their format was such that the conflict would not only remain unresolved but stay frozen. He said major powers appeared to have reached a consensus on the issue, but had miscalculated regarding the plans and ideas of the Azerbaijani people and government.

As an occupied country, he said, Azerbaijan would never have reconciled with violations of its people's ordinary human rights, and it never lost hope. Seeing that talks led nowhere, he said, Azerbaijan defeated the enemy on the basis of the right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter, liberating territories held for years and restoring international law. He added that UN Security Council resolutions of 1993, which demanded the full withdrawal of Armenian forces, had remained only on paper.