Aliyev sticks to his principles
Following the large-scale exercises on the 92nd anniversary of Azerbaijani Armed Forces, President Ilham Aliyev called on the Azerbaijani armed forces to be ready to liberate native lands by the order of the Supreme Commander.
The Azerbaijani president stressed the importance of army building, increase of Azerbaijani military strength and mostly spoke of achievements made in this direction, Azerbaijani Apa news agency reports.
For many years we have suffered from aggression, our lands are under occupation. At any time we have to be able to liberate our homeland from invaders. Along with political and diplomatic efforts, we must have a strong army to liberate the lands. The process is going well. Today the level of the Azerbaijani army is very high", he said.
The President said that during the seven years of military expenditure in Azerbaijan increased by more than 13 times.
"Today, in Azerbaijan military expenditures for 2010 amount to 2 billion 150 million dollars, which exceeds the entire state budget of Armenia. However, this is not enough. We will continue to increase our military power, to procure all necessary for our army weapons, ammunition and equipment", said Ilham Aliyev.
"Our goal is to further strengthen the independence of the country, to guarantee the independent policy of Azerbaijan, to resolve all problems facing the country. The most important and foremost among these problems - is liberation of our lands from the invaders," he continued.
Ilham Aliyev especially stressed that Azerbaijan has never denied the possibility of military solutions to the issue.
As you know, for many years Armenia and Azerbaijan are negotiating in this direction. Great is the role of mediators in the negotiations. However, despite this, the question is still unresolved. Today Azerbaijan faces new challenges: either to continue negotiations - we ready for this - or to choose another path. We have to be ready for any variant, and the statements I have made repeatedly over the past few years testify to this," Aliyev said adding that the patience of the Azerbaijani people is not unlimited.
