Stopping 2020 Karabakh War ‘at that time was our conscious choice': Azerbaijani president

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Wednesday that stopping the 2020 Karabakh War was a "conscious choice."

"After the Shusha Victory, the enemy was practically ready to capitulate and signed the act of capitulation the following day. And we stopped the war,” Aliyev said in an address in Khankendi during a military parade for Victory Day. “Stopping the war at that time was our conscious choice,"

Aliyev said Azerbaijan was put under a lot of pressure during the 44-day war and indicated that threats were coming from "different places and capitals" but it could not divert the country "from the right path."

"I appealed to the people of Azerbaijan during the Patriotic War, saying that the enemy should give us a timetable of when it would vacate our lands and we were ready to stop the war. And so it happened," he said.

Aliyev went on to say that the holding of the military parade in the central square of Khankendi showed "how correct and wise that decision was."

He also said Azerbaijan fully restored its territorial integrity by taking control of the Azerbaijan-Armenia border in April, while later restoring its state sovereignty following an anti-terrorism operation in Karabakh in September.

“The book of the separatists was now closed. There will be no room for separatism in Azerbaijan anymore,” he added.

Most of the Karabakh region, which had been under Armenian occupation for nearly three decades, was liberated by Azerbaijan during the 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that also opened the door to normalization with Yerevan.

On Nov. 8, the Azerbaijani army liberated the city of Shusha, which was later declared Victory Day by a presidential decree.

Initially, Victory Day was to be celebrated Nov. 10, the day of the end of the Second Karabakh War, but was later changed due to coinciding with the anniversary of the passing of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Türkiye.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​