Aliyev Threatens Military Action Against Armenia, Yerevan Accuses Baku of Planning New Attacks
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan renewed his military threats against Armenia on Friday, warning Yerevan to “not forget about second Karabakh war” and “the anti-terror operation,” referring to Azerbaijan’s attack on Artsakh last year that forced its Armenian population to flee.
“Let them not forget about the second Karabakh war,” Aliyev said during a visit to Jebrail, a territory south of occupied Artsakh and formerly under the control of the Artsakh Armed Forces until the 2020 war.
“Let them not forget how they begged for mercy from us on their knees, how they appealed to Russia at the highest level ten times a day, asking to stop the war. Let them not forget about the anti-terror operation,” Aliyev added.
“We achieved what we wanted without fearing anyone, without reckoning with anyone,” Aliyev said.
The Azerbaijani president’s comments come just over a week after the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, once again pledged to “make additional efforts” toward the signing of a peace deal during talks hosted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Aliyev also singled out Blinken, blaming him for a recent letter signed by 60 Members of Congress who emphasize that Azerbaijan committed ethnic cleansing in Artsakh and urging the Biden Administration to impose sanctions on the Baku regime.
The Azerbaijani leader also blasted France, which has signed a number of arms deals with Armenia over the past year.
President Emmanuel Macron of France on Thursday pledged his country’s continued support to Armenia when he met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Elysee Palace.
“I also am warning Armenia to stop those dangerous games,” Aliyev lashed out.
“On the one hand, they talk about peace, on the other hand, they arm themselves heavily. Who gives them weapons: France and similar anti-Azerbaijani countries? Why do they give away those weapons? No matter how hard they try, they will not achieve anything,” Aliyev threatened.
A spokesperson for Armenia’s foreign ministry responded to Aliyev’s latests threats, by emphasizing that Azerbaijan spends more on acquiring arms than Armenia, adding that it is Armenia’s right, as a sovereign nation, to ensure security and safety of its borders and citizens.
“Armenia is acquiring weapons and equipment solely to exercise its right of self-defense and fulfill its responsibility to protect its citizens. In parallel, Azerbaijan’s arsenal of offensive weapons far exceeds that of Armenia, as often stated by the President of Azerbaijan,” said Armenia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan when pressed for comment by the Armepress news agency.
“Furthermore, threatening and aggressive statements from Azerbaijan have been increasingly common lately. How should one interpret these statements?” Badalyan said.
“Yerevan has reiterated many times—at the highest levels—that it harbors no aggressive intentions toward any neighbor, recognizes the territorial integrity of all of them, and has no territorial claims,” Badalyan emphasized.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson also stressed that the recent decision of Armenia’s Constitutional Court confirmed that the regulations governing the joint activities of the Armenian and Azerbaijani border delimitation commissions are compliant with the Armenian constitution, rejecting any claims that the Constitution contains territorial claims against its neighbors.
“Armenia has also stated that, although some of its territories are occupied by Azerbaijan, it has no intention or agenda to return these territories by military means, because the above-mentioned regulation of the joint activities of the border delimitation commissions provides all the opportunities to address and solve these problems peacefully and through negotiations,” Badalyan explained.
The foreign ministry spokesperson questioned the timing of Aliyev’s statements, pondering whether Azerbaijan is preparing another military attack against Armenia.
Badalyan said she believes it is important to seek an answer to this question, “as it will help assess concerns that Azerbaijan may use the upcoming COP29 conference in Baku as a smokescreen to launch a new military aggression against Armenia and to propagate its political accountability to the foreign leaders who traveled to Baku to participate in COP29,” Badalyan said referring to the United Nations Climate Summit, scheduled to be held in Baku next month.
She also emphasized that statements made by Aliyev and other high-ranking Azerbaijani officials are raising more questions about Baku’s intentions vis-a-vis Armenia.
“Is Azerbaijan rejecting the agreements to recognize the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia based on the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991?” Badalyan said, emphasizing that that Armenia has “reaffirmed its pledge to the agreement reached with Azerbaijan on the basis of the Alma-Ata Declaration; that is, to recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty along the administrative borders of the former Soviet republics.”
Badalyan also pondered whether official Azerbaijan is abandoning the so-called “peace agenda.”
“Armenia has reaffirmed its commitment to the Peace Agenda and its readiness to sign the content of the already agreed peace with Azerbaijan as a peace treaty, about which the prime minister of Armenia announced in his speech at the recent 79th session of the UN General Assembly in New York,” Badalyan explained.
“We believe that instead of aggressive rhetoric, we should focus on resolving the issue of signing the peace treaty as soon as possible and negotiating on other issues not only in de facto, but also in de-jure peace conditions,” she said.