All our cities and villages in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur were razed to the ground. Ethnic cleansing was carried out against our people. Nearly one million Azerbaijanis were displaced from their native lands as a result of the Armenian state's policy of ethnic cleansing.

Operativ Media reports that President Ilham Aliyev made these remarks during a meeting with participants of international conferences in Baku.

Recalling that the major powers supporting Armenia wanted to prolong the issue and make the occupation permanent rather than resolve it, the head of state emphasized: “By providing military, economic, and political support to Armenia, these states were effectively rewarding the occupier. The Azerbaijani people put an end to this injustice and set a precedent in the world. Unfortunately, occupied lands had not been liberated until now. In any case, such cases were not seen in the 20th and 21st centuries, or they were extremely rare.”