“Given the fact of occupation, the issue of army building has always been at the top of my agenda. This topic has always dominated my work schedule, public speeches and contacts with colleagues. Of course, this topic united our entire nation and we all tried to secure the restoration of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,” said President Ilham Aliyev in his interview with local TV channels.

“It is no coincidence that when we reviewed and prepared the state budget, I always ordered that the biggest expenditures should be allocated for army building,” the head of state emphasized.

“First of all, unfortunately, there are strong revanchist sentiments in Armenia, both in the government and in the opposition, and also in society. Unfortunately, we are seeing this in real life. Just yesterday, another military provocation was committed against Azerbaijani servicemen. As a result of this baseless aggression, an Azerbaijani serviceman was killed. It is not the first time this has happened since the war. Unfortunately, Armenia did not learn the lesson from all our previous punitive measures. Yesterday's incident is no exception. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces have taken decisive measures to punish the criminals, and today, according to the information I received from the Minister of Defense, six to eight enemy servicemen were killed and many others were wounded. Shortly after this incident, the Armenian side began to insistently request a ceasefire. However, they must understand that the death of an Azerbaijani serviceman will never be forgiven. Despite numerous requests from the Armenian side, I would even say pleas – since this incident took place not in the area of responsibility of Russian peacekeepers, but in the direction of Kalbajar – and also despite the requests of Russian peacekeepers, I ordered the Defense Minister at 21:30 to cease fire and let the Armenian side collect their numerous wounded servicemen. In other words, both this incident and all previous incidents ended in this way – crimes, provocations, covert provocations, punitive measures by the Azerbaijani side, and then pleas for a ceasefire. As a result, Azerbaijan has once again demonstrated humanism, but only after we came to the conclusion that the punitive operation should be stopped,” President Ilham Aliyev added.

News.Az