Aliyev: Armenia Thought the Russian Army Would Come and Fight

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev addressed the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war during his speech at the international conference on "South Caucasus: Development and Cooperation," stating that there were great expectations in Armenia that Russia would intervene in the war, according to minval.az.

"This did not happen because we were fighting 'in our territory'," said Aliyev, adding that Armenia had "exploited" the obligations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), but the CSTO's mandate is to support member countries in their territories.

"At the same time, we all know—I have repeatedly stated to the public—that during the 44-day war, several military cargo planes flew from Russia to Armenia daily. We were monitoring all routes from Rostov, Mozdok, etc. We asked our Georgian friends to close their airspace, and they did. We also asked our Georgian friends to close the land route that could be used to transport weapons from Russia to Armenia; they did that, and we are grateful to them," emphasized Aliyev.

The head of state noted that during the war, Baku sent a letter to all Caspian countries, requesting them not to allow Russian military cargo planes to enter Armenia. "We sent it to Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. Unfortunately, these planes took advantage of the territories of these countries when entering Armenia. This is how it happened, and we should not hide this side of the 44-day war. But Armenia's expectations were greater. They believed that the Russian army would come, fight, and defend the 'separatism' (quotes from Tert.am), but that did not happen," said Aliyev.