Azerbaijan will immediately suspend diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh's independence, President Ilham Aliyev told in an interview with the Haberturk Turkish television channel on Wednesday.
"The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is recognized by the whole world. <...> I don't believe that any country recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh's independence because an hour won't pass before we interrupt all diplomatic relations with this country. It is a must," Aliyev said.
He believes it is necessary to prepare the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples for living together in Nagorno-Karabakh after the conflict.
Sending peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh should be done only with the consent of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Aliyev said. "Sending peacekeepers to the region should be based on the approval of two states, Armenia and Azerbaijan. If any country objects, of course, this will not happen. Another issue is that today when we are talking about peacekeepers, we are talking about the territory of Azerbaijan, everybody should understand it. We are talking about the territory of independent Azerbaijan," he said.
The President of Azerbaijan has promised to invest and implement social programs in Nagorno-Karabakh after the conflict is over.
No Turkish citizen is involved in hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, Aliyev pointed out.
Aliyev said that Azerbaijan would harshly respond to attempts to disable the oil and gas pipelines through which the country's energy resources are exported.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS