Azerbaijan’s president said following victory during last year’s Karabakh War, Azerbaijan prevented drug trafficking from Iran to Armenia and further afield to the European countries.
“Over the past year, after Azerbaijan had regained control over the 130-kilometre (81-mile) section of the state border with Iran, which was under the control of Armenia for about 30 years, and thereby blocked a drug trafficking route from Iran through the Jabrayil district of Azerbaijan to Armenia and further to Europe, the volume of heroin we have seized in other sections of the Azerbaijan-Iran border has doubled compared to the same period of previous years. This suggests that for about 30 years, Armenia, in collaboration with Iran, used the occupied territories of Azerbaijan to carry out drug trafficking to Europe,” Ilham Aliyev said while addressing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Heads of State Council’s session via videoconference.
Aliyev emphasized that during the years of occupation by Armenian forces, he repeatedly said the occupied territories were being used “for drug trafficking and training of international terrorists.”
“It is a proven fact today,” he said.
Touching on the so-called “Armenian prisoners of war,” Aliyev said his country handed over all prisoners of war who were detained during the war “earlier than Armenia handed over Azerbaijani prisoners of war” to Baku.
“More than two weeks after the signing of the Trilateral Statement (between Moscow, Baku and Yerevan), in late November last year, a sabotage group of 62 people infiltrated the rear of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in the already liberated territories from the Shirak region of Armenia to commit subversions. It was disarmed and captured by Azerbaijani servicemen. Therefore, in accordance with international conventions, these saboteurs cannot be considered prisoners of war,” he said.
He said the war and conflict “belong to the past,” and Azerbaijan is ready to start negotiations with Armenia on the delimitation of the border on the condition of mutual recognition of territorial integrity.
“We are also ready to launch negotiations on a peace agreement with Armenia. Azerbaijan, as a victorious country, is ready to normalize relations. We do hope that the Armenian leadership will not pass up on this historic opportunity,” he said.
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