Azerbaijani President Visits Karabakh’s Abandoned Main Town

He accused international mediators — which were chiefly Russia, France and the U.S. — of being uninterested in achieving a real resolution of the conflict during three decades of talks that Aliyev called “meaningless and fruitless.”

“Unfortunately, the mediators dealing with this issue wanted to freeze the conflict, to perpetuate it. They wanted this wound to fester. The people and the state of Azerbaijan could never come to terms with this situation. I have often said that we will never accept this situation; we will never allow a second Armenian state to be created on our land.”

After the offensive and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s surrender, Azerbaijani officials had two meetings with representatives of Karabakh Armenians, where they reportedly discussed the reintegration of the population to Azerbaijan.

Now, with practically the entire population having fled, it’s not clear what reintegration could mean. A UN mission deployed to Khankandi/Stepanakert on October 1 reported that as few as 50 Armenians likely remain in the region. As of October 4, Azerbaijani authorities reported that 98 Armenians had applied to receive Azerbaijani citizenship.

Aliyev did not mention any prospect of reintegration or return of Armenians back to Karabakh in his speech.

But he did gloat over Azerbaijan’s arrest on terrorism and separatism charges of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s last three de facto presidents and several other former officials.

“The three clowns who used to sit here and call themselves ‘president’ await their deserved punishment today. I wonder if the man who used to sit in one of these buildings and call himself a ‘prime minister’ will ever dare to threaten us again. His tea is being served in the detention facility as we speak,” he said.

“A separatist who called himself a ‘foreign minister’ once sarcastically said that Azerbaijan should open an embassy in our country if it wanted to raise its flag in Khankendi. Now, his tea is also served there in the detention facility. Our flag is flying high here. This should be a lesson to them.”

Caucasus analyst Thomas de Waal criticized Aliyev’s address in a post on X.

“It’s an angry speech, dwelling on past grievances, with nothing about the future or reconciliation. No olive branches,” he wrote. “The message is very much ‘Karabakh without Armenians.’”

De Waal continued: “It bodes ill for what comes next with the Republic of Armenia. No sign here of what Westerners are urging: that Aliyev should start to treat Armenia and Pashinyan as a partner, rather than a defeated adversary. Instead it suggests that Aliyev still believes he derives legitimacy from the public by mobilizing anti-Armenian sentiment. So strong indications that he will keep on threatening Armenia itself.”

(This piece originally appeared on Eurasianet.org on October 16.)