BAKU-Azerbaijan is ready to restore its territorial integrity by military means at any moment, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev declared Wednesday at a ceremony celebrating Azerbaijan's armed forces, reported mosnews.com.
"Azerbaijan has military formations capable of carrying out any mission. If necessary, Azerbaijan can use its military power to restore its territorial integrity, and it is our sovereign right. International law allows us to do it," Aliyev said.
"We live in a state of war, thus our primary goal is and should be the strengthening of our army," he added. "With the war still going on and only its first stage over, we are continuing our efforts to be ready to free our motherland from the enemy by military means at any time."
The Azeri president sought to justify the countries unprecedented arms buildup over the years, saying that 15 years of "fruitless" negotiations with Armenia over the Nagrono-Karabakh conflict has left only the military option. He also claimed his country has repeatedly expressed its readiness to reach a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through negotiations and justified its enormous military buildup.
But international mediators have pointed to Baku's war rhetoric as one of the main obstacles to a peaceful settlement of the almost two-decade long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In an apparent reference to Armenia', Aliyev said Azerbaijan's economy has been successfully developing through the current crisis, while "some other countries depend on foreign aid."
"Thanks to our strengthened economic potential, we have succeeded in creating a strong army," he said.
The Azeri leader's remarks come days after Matthew Bryza, the chief US negotiator for the Karabakh conflict said the Minsk Group hoped to clinch an agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the principles of a peace deal at talks tentatively planned for mid-July in Russia.
