Yerevan /Mediamax/. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that "the ongoing armament of Armenia is a new threat factor for the South Caucasus.”

“I want to say it again that we cannot simply watch this as observers and do nothing. I have also repeatedly stated this to the Armenian leadership that this may create a new threat,” Aliyev stated in an interview with Azerbaijani TV channels.

“Another disturbing fact is that in April of last year, for the first time in history, a very strange cooperation platform was created - America, the European Union and Armenia. The US Secretary of State, the President of the European Commission and the Foreign Minister, and the Prime Minister of Armenia met in Brussels and actually reached an agreement on a new cooperation. According to the information we have, the agreement reached before this meeting also included a military component, but after that it was officially removed from there, but de facto it remains there. This, in fact, excluded both the European Commission and the United States of America from the Azerbaijan-Armenia normalization process. We have already informed them about this. If any party takes sides, it cannot be a fair mediator. That is why the request of the US Secretary of State remained in the air last month and Azerbaijan did not agree to a trilateral meeting. As you know, many meetings were held in Brussels at the initiative of the presidents of the European Commission and the Council of the European Union. This has now also been stopped,” the Azerbaijani president said.

“We want peace. We want the war page to be closed. However, we see that both Armenia itself and its new patrons do not want this. They live with ideas of revenge, and Armenia is actually a source of threat to the region. The independent Armenian state is actually a fascist state. Now look, the racist and fascist statements of the first president of Armenia are as ugly as they are dangerous. He portrays ethnic cleansing as a source of pride, bragging about the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their historical ancestral lands.

The 30-year occupation policy against us is not simply a product of Armenia, but a joint product of Islamophobic, Azerbaijanophobic, racist, xenophobic circles, and representatives of foreign countries who are in solidarity with it. We are neighbors with such a fascist state, and the threat of fascism is not going away. Therefore, fascism must be destroyed. Either the Armenian leadership will destroy it or we will. We have no other choice.

The first three leaders of Armenia are proponents of fascist ideology. The current leader of Armenia, as I said, now wants to make a dove of peace out of himself. But look, no one wants to recall his speeches in 2018-2019 now.

Armenia must immediately stop arming. France and other countries that provide it with weapons must terminate and cancel these contracts. The weapons that have already been sent to Armenia must be returned. This is our condition. I give my word, they know it, and those behind them know that if we say something, then we are already taking this issue very seriously,” Aliyev stated.

The Azerbaijani President expressed hope that “all our conditions regarding the peace treaty will be accepted, because there are no extraordinary issues in them.”

The abolition of the Minsk Group, the amendment of the constitution – without these, a peace treaty is impossible. If Armenia does not need a peace treaty, we do not need it either. We can live and conduct our own policy without signing it. I would still advise the Armenian side to weigh everything up, including geopolitical changes in the world. Their close friends are being shamefully removed from the political scene. Yesterday, news came that Mr. Trudeau, a close friend of Armenia and Pashinyan, also had to resign. This country was very anti-Azerbaijani during and after the Second Karabakh.

Yesterday, the French president made further absurd accusations against Azerbaijan. It seems that Mr. Macron cannot live without Azerbaijan. He has some kind of mania and wants to blame all his sins on us. I think that if we have become so strong that we can interfere in the internal affairs of France and change something, we can simply be proud of it.

The Soros era has ended in America as well. The Biden administration was, in fact, governed by the Soros method of governance. It is no coincidence that one of Biden’s last decisions was to present Soros with America’s highest award. In other words, these supporters of Soros are actually losing their positions. The Armenian leadership should take this into account,” Ilham Aliyev stated.

The Azerbaijani president also stated that “Zangezur corridor must and will be opened.”

“The sooner they understand this, the better it is. Why should we have to go to Nakhchivan, an integral part of Azerbaijan, through different ways? We should have a direct connection, and this connection does not question Armenia’s sovereignty. Simply put, they should fulfill the provisions of the 10 November Statement. Everything is explicitly stated there. We have been showing patience for more than four years. For more than four years, we have wanted this to be resolved through negotiations. How long will we have to wait and why should we wait? I once said that they should not upset us and understand that we are the ones who have the say here and that Azerbaijan is the leading economy, the leading military power and the leading state in the South Caucasus. In today’s world, the power factor is at the forefront and no one should forget this,” Aliyev said.