President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made remarks during the meeting with ASAN volunteers following the opening of a regional office of "ASAN Service" centre in Balakan.

"As you know, Azerbaijan's worthy response to the enemy increased military morale of the society. Young people were again at the forefront. Less than a week after I expressed my views on the issue at a Cabinet meeting in the mid-July, more than 50,000 young Azerbaijanis went to the State Service for Mobilization and Conscription and registered as volunteers. More than 50,000 people a week", President said.

"I said that the Azerbaijani Army is fully equipped and there is no need for additional manpower today. But if necessary, more than 50,000 people registered in a week are ready to fight for the Motherland".

"These events once again showed the fascist nature of Armenia, their cowardice, because this is not the first time that the enemy has acted against the civilian population after defeat on the battlefield. Our villages were set on fire. A 76-year-old man was killed during the attack. This is an atrocity. The war is waged by armies, soldiers and volunteers. However, our hateful neighbour wages war against civilian people, just as the Khojaly genocide in which they killed innocent people - children, women. In Khojaly, 613 people were killed by the enemy, more than a thousand people went missing. The only "fault" of those people was that they were Azerbaijanis. This factor is enough for Armenian nationalists. They were peaceful, unarmed civilians. Then government of Azerbaijan was weak and using this 'opportunity' Armenians to commit savage crimes and genocide against our people. They attempted to take the same steps again. Otherwise, what could be a reason for bombing the civilian population, firing artillery and mortars? I reiterate that they see their weakness on the battlefield and resort to the most heinous acts. The battles of April 2016 were organized on the basis of this scenario. At that time, our villages were regularly fired from the positions occupied by Armenia. The Azerbaijani Army carried out a counter-offensive with great professionalism, recaptured the occupied strategic heights and forced the enemy to flee. The events happened in Tovuz district was the repetition of the same scenario. We should know this. We should know what kind of enemy we are facing with. We should never forget that. We must never forget the Khojaly genocide and we will not forget it! After we crushed another blow to the enemy we witness how helpless they are. They immediately asked for help of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. I want to reiterate that the CSTO has nothing to do with this issue because Armenia is an aggressor state. Their main goal was to flare up the conflict on the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border, then to blame Azerbaijan for this conflict, appeal to the CSTO and ask for military assistance. That was their heinous plan. They tried to involve CSTO members to this plan but they failed. The CSTO has not made any statement except from general statement on the issue. However, Azerbaijan showed its support to many countries. First, everyone knows that the perpetrator of this conflict is Armenia. We have no interest in the territory of Armenia. We have no military targets there and the international community is well aware of this. Therefore, several international organizations have openly supported us. The Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States consists of five countries. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation consists of 57 countries. The Non-Aligned Movement consists of 120 countries. A number of countries, especially, brotherly Turkey, unequivocally supported Azerbaijan. The President of Turkey, my dear brother Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has repeatedly demonstrated a very open, sharp and principled position on this issue. This shows once again that Turkey and Azerbaijan are together as always, both in good times and in difficult times. We can rely on each other and our strength is in our unity. These international organizations and several countries and their officials made statements in support of Azerbaijan. As for CSTO, I have to say that four out of six members of this organization supported Azerbaijan through statements adopted on this issue in international organizations. Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are members of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are also members of the CSTO. So, two members of the CSTO support Azerbaijan through this organization. Belarus is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. The statement of the Non-Aligned Movement is also the position of Belarus. Tajikistan is a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has taken an open position on this border conflict. In other words, the four countries are already with Azerbaijan. And supported Armenia? How can CSTO members support the current leadership of Armenia?".

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