Aliyev: We Asked Our Georgian Friends to Close Land and Air Routes, They Did

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev addressed the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war during a speech at the international conference "South Caucasus: Development and Cooperation," stating that there were high expectations in Armenia that Russia would intervene in the conflict, according to minval.az.

"I have repeatedly stated to the public that during the 44-day war, military cargo planes from Russia were flying to Armenia several times a day. We monitored all routes from Rostov and Mozdok. We asked our Georgian friends to close the 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 this, and we are grateful to them," emphasized Aliyev.

The state leader noted that during the war, Baku sent letters to all Caspian countries requesting them not to allow Russian cargo planes with weapons to enter Armenia. "We sent it to Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. Unfortunately, these planes used the territories of these countries when entering Armenia. That is how it happened, and we should not hide this aspect of the 44-day war. But Armenia's expectations were higher; they thought the Russian army would come, fight, and protect the 'separatism' (quotes from Tert.am), but this did not happen," said Aliyev.