Ilham Aliyev tells Interfax Azerbaijan's army gained upper hand in Karabakh

On 28 October 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev gave an interview to Russia's Interfax news agency. The interview came a month after Azerbaijan's armed forces launched a counteroffensive on 27 September in response to large-scale Armenian provocations along the front line. The operation was later named "Iron Fist". Trend reported that the 44-day Patriotic War ended a nearly 30-year occupation and restored Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.

Aliyev said the army had proven its superiority on the battlefield and had liberated much of the occupied territory in one month. He said the cities of Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Zangilan and Gubadly and part of Khojavend district had been freed. He said Azerbaijan would halt military operations once Armenia committed to withdrawing its forces from the remaining occupied territories, and noted that the ceasefire had been violated three times by the Armenian side. Azerbaijanis, he said, should return to all their former lands, including Shusha and Khankendi.