The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has claimed Armenia for his country, as we read in OC Media:
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has appeared to lay claim to modern-day Armenia while also attacking critics in the West for supporting Armenia.
‘Western Azerbaijan [Armenia] is our historical land, this is confirmed by many historical documents, historical maps, and our history’, Aliyev said on Saturday, in a wide-ranging speech to the Community of West Azerbaijanis on his 61st birthday.
‘Western Azerbaijan’ is an irredentist concept used by the Azerbaijani authorities to lay claim to the territory of modern-day Armenia.
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Aliyev directly referenced the 2022 September War, hinting that Azerbaijan initiated the war. ‘Many important events took place this year. We had to carry out a military operation on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border’, he said.
During the two-day war, Azerbaijani forces took control of several positions within Armenia that they still hold.
‘As a result of this military operation, our historical cities are now in front of our eyes through visual observation’, Aliyev said.
‘Today we see Lake Goyche [Lake Sevan] without binoculars. Firstly, I think that this is fair.’
‘Secondly, the September clashes will insure us against big problems in the future. Because revanchist forces are emerging in Armenia, whether in the government or in the opposition.’
He went on to say they were working on a ‘Return Concept’ to bring Azerbaijanis to Armenia, a process he insisted would be peaceful.
‘The day will come when our compatriots from West Azerbaijan, their relatives, children, and grandchildren will return to our historical land, West Azerbaijan. I am sure that this day will come and I am sure that the West Azerbaijanis will return to their native lands with great enthusiasm’, he said.
The war began as merely a ‘fight for Nagorno-Karabakh’ and is now a war for the rest of Armenia. Expect Turkey — Azerbaijan’s biggest ally — to work to take the whole of Armenia and resume from where the Ottomans left off in the Armenian Genocide.
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