Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that Armenia continues to resort to provocation on the state border despite the end of the last year’s war.
Aliyev made the remarks on May 28, while laying the foundation for restoration of Armenian-destroyed Aghdam city. Commenting on the recent escalation of the tension on the border, Aliyev said that provocations staged by Armenia did not and should not remain unanswered.
Aliyev was referring to the detention of six Armenian saboteurs on May 27 who sought to infiltrate into Azerbaijan and plant mines on the supply routes leading to the Azerbaijani Army near Kalbajar. Earlier, on May 24, a military truck belonging to the Azerbaijani Army exploded on a mine near Kalbajar, leaving one serviceman injured. Aliyev mocked Yerevan’s handling of the border tension, saying that the country’s acting Prime Minister and the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces give conflicting reports on the situation and that the reports coming from Armenia are a lie.
He further said that Armenians as a nation have failed to build a state. “Armenians failed to build a state in the past 30 years. They cannot build a state. These people can only live as part of large states.” Aliyev stressed that Armenia missed the opportunity to exist as an independent state in the past 30 years due to its occupation of the Azerbaijani territories and the atrocities it committed against the Azerbaijani people. “They openly admit that they cannot defend their country and their borders,” Aliyev said, adding that the country’s previous and incumbent leaders trade accusations over the dire situation existing in Armenia. It should be noted that Armenia depends on Russia to defend its borders. Russia has a 102nd military base in Armenia’s Gyumri city. Kremlin has also stationed its troops in Armenia’s Zangazur (Syunik) region.
The tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan escalated in May amid elimination of the state border. Azerbaijan and Armenia have failed to come to an agreement on the demarcation of their state border following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The tension over border delineation gained a fresh momentum following the end of the Second Karabakh War in 2020.
