President Ilham Aliyev was interviewed by France 24 in Munich

MUNICH, Germany, February 14. On February 13,
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was
interviewed by France 24 in Munich.

Trend presents
the interview.

Correspondent: Hello and welcome to “Tête à tête”,
France 24’s flagship interview show. Our guest today is the
President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. Thank you very much, Mr.
President.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank
you.

Correspondent: On August 8, there was a trilateral
summit at the White House with you, Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan, and U.S. President Donald Trump, and a declaration to
end the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia was signed, with
promises to reopen transportation routes and normalize relations.
Can you tell us whether total peace and full normalization are now
coming soon?

President Ilham Aliyev: I think so, because the
signing of this historic document at the White House, in the
presence of the President of the United States, who, by the way,
also signed the Joint Declaration as a witness, means that the
conflict is over and that we have entered a period of peace, which
I hope will last forever. Since that time, more than six months
have passed, and we have a very quiet situation on the border with
Armenia. No more shootings, no victims, no wounded. Azerbaijan
unilaterally lifted the restrictions on the transit of goods to
Armenia, and we also started supplying critical oil products to
Armenia, which actually marks the beginning of our trade relations.
So we can see that peace has already been achieved. There are
certain formalities in order to sign a final peace agreement, but
along with the declaration, which you mentioned, the foreign
ministers of both countries in Washington also initialed the text
of the peace agreement. So for me, it is done. I think the Prime
Minister of Armenia shares the same opinion. We are just learning
to live in peace, and it's a very good feeling.

Correspondent: It's a very good feeling. However, what's
missing for full normalization? I understand that for Azerbaijan
there is an issue with Armenia's constitution and language
pertaining to territorial claims on Garabagh. Is this an absolute
red line for you? Without this being changed, there will be no
normalization?

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, you're right.
There will be no signing of a peace agreement. I would divide
normalization from a formal peace agreement because normalization
is already taking place. As I said, all these positive developments
show that. But the Armenian constitution, which was adopted a long
time ago during the times of the occupation of Garabagh, contains
the reference to the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, which
contains the paragraph that so-called Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia
should unite. So this is a territorial claim to Azerbaijan. Our
position for many years, since the end of the Second Garabagh War,
has been very clear: this should be changed. And as far as I know,
Armenia is planning to hold a referendum. And as soon as it is
done, there will be no obstacles to the formal signing of a peace
agreement. But again, I'd like to underline that for Azerbaijan,
peace has been achieved. The normalization process is moving
successfully, and I hope that as soon as these legal formalities
are done, we will have formal peace.

Correspondent: This year?

President Ilham Aliyev: Definitely.

Correspondent: JD Vance, the Vice President, visited
both countries. There were announcements of a strategic
partnership, where the U.S. would sell all kinds of weapons now to
Azerbaijan. There is also this so-called TRIPP project, the Trump
Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a road and rail link
through Armenia to your exclave of Nakhchivan. Is this a pie in the
sky, or is this really going to happen and change the
dynamics?

President Ilham Aliyev: I have no doubt that it
will happen. One of the reasons is that, again, the United States
played a crucial role in this process. The route, which will
connect two parts of Azerbaijan through Armenia and even stretch to
the European continent, carries the name of President Trump. It's
the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity. And I think
that this very personal commitment of the U.S. President and also
the agenda of the U.S. government shows that the TRIPP will be
built. It's not a big distance; it's only 40-plus kilometers. By
the way, I'd like to say that the railroad which Azerbaijan is now
building to the Armenian border from the capital is about 400
kilometers, plus almost 200 kilometers in our Nakhchivan exclave to
be rehabilitated. So the Armenian segment of the Zangezur Corridor,
as we call it, is very short. And I'm sure that it will be
done.

And coming to the question about Vice President Vance's visit,
yes, it was a very important visit. The visit in itself of the Vice
President of the United States is important for any country. In
this case, it was marked with the signing of the Charter on
Strategic Partnership between the governments of the United States
and Azerbaijan. Thus, we became an official strategic partner of
the most powerful country in the world, and we consider it a big
success for our country.

And this Strategic Charter, it was published in the press, so it
contains different segments. One of them was defense sales, but not
only that. It's energy, connectivity, AI, investment, and trade,
and also all the restrictions on the arms supplies to Azerbaijan
have been lifted.

Correspondent: I want to get to a decision by the
military court in your country that handed out harsh prison
sentences to 13 officials of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, including
life imprisonment for the former leader. There were reports that
the U.S. Vice President talked about the issue and asked you maybe
to grant them a pardon as a way to seek peace in the region. Did he
do this, and will you do this?

President Ilham Aliyev: During the interaction
with the Vice President, which lasted for several hours, among
other issues, this issue was also raised by him, and I expressed
Azerbaijan's position on this issue, and that was it. We mainly
discussed bilateral relations, regional development, TRIPP, and
prospects for formal peace with Armenia. With respect to these
people whom you mentioned, these are the leaders of the illegal
separatist regime, which illegally functioned on our territory, on
the territory of the sovereign Azerbaijani state, recognized as
such by the entire international community, including Armenia.

For many years, these people were masterminds of all the war
crimes against Azerbaijanis and Azerbaijan, and they were brought
to justice. They were detained in Garabagh as a result of our
military operation and brought to justice. They were provided with
lawyers. The trial was absolutely transparent. Their crimes were
proven by the testimonies of witnesses, numerous testimonies, and
there is no question about suspicion of wrongdoing.

Correspondent: But could you do something about this,
Mr. President?

President Ilham Aliyev: What do you mean?

Correspondent: Turn the page and grant them clemency or
something. You could make a gesture. This is within your
powers.

President Ilham Aliyev: You know, these people
committed serious crimes against humanity. Imagine after the Second
World War, the Nuremberg trials, and all those Nazi leaders, who
were sentenced to death, in two months some would come and say,
please release them.

Correspondent: It's the same for you?

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, absolutely. It's
even worse, even worse. Their crimes were even worse than what the
Nazis did during World War II.

Correspondent: But in terms of turning the page, do you
also maybe have some compassion for the Armenians who had to leave
Garabagh as a result of the latest war?

President Ilham Aliyev: Our position on that
issue was very clear. It was articulated many times, including
publishing on the website that we offered all Armenians who lived
in Garabagh to apply for citizenship or to apply for a work permit.
We had several rounds of interactions with the representatives of
Garabagh Armenians, but they preferred to choose to leave for
Armenia. We have hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis who have
been deported and ethnically cleansed from the territory of today's
Armenia, but never did the Armenian government offer any kind of
proposals for them to come back. I think we need to treat this
issue from a reciprocal point of view. The right of return is a
universal right, and, of course, Azerbaijan will definitely observe
this right if we have such an application. But at the same time,
taking into account that we were at war with Armenia for 30 years,
and for 30 years they were occupying our territory, we expect the
same attitude toward hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis, who we
call Western Azerbaijanis, to be able to return to today's
Armenia.

Correspondent: I want to quickly get to the relation
with France. It was very bad, especially during the last war. You
criticized France for being a colonial power in New Caledonia and
in Corsica – very harsh words. A few months ago, a French citizen,
Théo Clerc, was freed. There's another one who's currently on
trial. You met the French President briefly on the sidelines of a
European summit. Would you say that the relation is back on track,
or that there are still problems between Azerbaijan and
France?

President Ilham Aliyev: You know, we were not
the source of the problems with France. We had very good relations
with France before the Second Garabagh War. There have been visits
of presidents, of President Sarkozy, President Hollande, and my
official visits to France. Also, I visited France during the term
of President Macron. We had very friendly relations, a lot of
business activity, more than a dozen sister cities. But when the
Second Garabagh War started, and we started to restore our
territorial integrity, unfortunately, the position of France was
absolutely incomprehensible, because France is defending the
territorial integrity of countries. It tries to defend its own
territorial integrity. Now it defends the territorial integrity of
Denmark. They defend the territorial integrity of Ukraine, but
unfortunately, they supported separatists. More than 10 resolutions
of the National Assembly and Senate were aimed at supporting
separatists, and even your parliament recognized so-called
Nagorno-Karabakh, though even Armenia did not recognize it. Also,
relations with the government were tense, but again, we were not
the source of this tension. We only wanted our sovereignty to be
respected.

Correspondent: But you used very harsh
words…

President Ilham Aliyev: Well, I did not start
to use the harsh words. What was done on behalf of Azerbaijan, I
want you to be absolutely sure, was only a response. We have a
catalog of harsh words which were used by the French President and
many French officials, chairman of your Senate, chairman of your
National Assembly, your famous personalities, which used words that
insulted our state and me personally. Moreover, after the Second
Garabagh War of 2020, before the anti-terror operation of 2023,
very famous French personalities like Madame Pécresse, Monsieur
Barnier, Monsieur Retailleau, all the names are familiar to the
audience, illegally visited Garabagh and supported the separatists.
So that was an open insult to Azerbaijan’s statehood and a total
sign of disrespect. All that has been said or done by us was done
and said in response. Maybe it was harsh. It's difficult to
measure. But I think what is important is, as you mentioned, my
meeting with President Macron at the end of last year, which was
very positive, and we agreed to put a restart button. We are ready
for that. The last thing we need is to have problems with any
country, including France. Again, it was not our initiative, but
now I think both sides are more ready for normal relations,
especially after Armenia and Azerbaijan have already achieved
peace.

Correspondent: So as a conclusion, we can expect maybe
you to meet the French President in the near future.

President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, definitely. By the
way, our meeting in Copenhagen was very friendly. And, of course,
since the meeting took place several months ago, there has been a
lot of interaction between our teams. They regularly contact each
other. There have been several meetings. Yes, there are still some
issues which President Macron and I underlined to be settled by
both sides. But again, it's important to understand that it's a
road with both directions. And as two sovereign countries, we need
to respect each other, respect each other's legal systems, and also
not interfere in each other's affairs. We were not the first, if I
may use your word, to talk about Caledonia, etc. It was France who
started to interfere in our internal affairs about Garabagh, and
not only that, even into our political agenda. So this should be
stopped. And I think both sides know how to do it.

Correspondent: President Aliyev, thank you very much for
being our guest. And thank you all for watching this edition of
“Tête à tête” here on France 24.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you.