First VP Mehriban Aliyeva meets Azerbaijani soldiers, officers wounded in April battles [UPDATE]

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva met on April 3 with a group of soldiers and officers of the Azerbaijani Army who were wounded during the April battles in 2016.

The First Vice-President addressed the event saying that the April battles demonstrate the power of the Azerbaijani state and unity of the people.

“The Azerbaijani army is strong and possesses state-of-the-art weapons and military hardware. Azerbaijani soldiers, showing high professionalism, patriotism, and heroism, liberated part of the lands which were under occupation,” she said.

Praising the April battles as the greatest military victory of Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva emphasized that “our soldiers prevented another armed provocation of Armenia, and gave an adequate response to that”.

“A successful counter-offensive resulted in the liberation of thousands of hectares of land that was under occupation. The government once again showed the whole world that Azerbaijan will never reconcile with the occupation of its lands and that the Azerbaijani army is capable of successfully conducting any necessary operation,” she added.

During the April battles, Azerbaijan suffered losses, said Mehriban Aliyeva.  

“Losing a child is the biggest tragedy for parents. No people want war. No mother wants to lose sons. May Allah rest the souls of all our martyrs. The bright memory of them will always live in the heart of the Azerbaijani people,” she said.

Azerbaijan is a peace-loving country, said the First Vice-President, underlining that the country wants a peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and have been negotiating for more than 20 years.

“However, no one should forget that Armenia seized Azerbaijani lands not by peaceful means, and Azerbaijan will never reconcile with this occupation. Azerbaijani soldiers, the sons of Azerbaijan are fighting for their Motherland, giving their lives for it. Their struggle is a fair fight. What do Armenian soldiers do on Azerbaijani lands? The reason for the conflict and losses lies in the fact that the Armenian soldiers are on the land of Azerbaijan,” she stressed.

Appealing to Armenian mothers, Mrs. Aliyeva called on them not to let their children become victims of an aggressive policy and not to support the occupation policy.

“Conflict must be stopped as soon as possible. Nagorno-Karabakh is the native land of Azerbaijan. The conflict must find an early solution within the norms of international law, the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The occupying forces must leave the Azerbaijani lands, then peace will be restored in the region, and no mother, neither Armenian nor Azerbaijani, will shed tears over the grave of their sons,” she said.

In general, the Azerbaijani state is paying special attention to restore the health of our soldiers who were injured and suffered in the battles for the territorial integrity of the country, said Mrs. Aliyeva.

The Vice-President said that every soldier is valuable for the Azerbaijani state and the Azerbaijani people. The Azerbaijani state is ready to take all necessary steps for the injured soldiers to return them back to normal life.

“On my instructions each of you will be ensured with an individual approach. You will be provided with modern prostheses that promote normal dynamics of movement. Based on my instructions, a special group was created. People working in this group will carry out both the provision of prostheses and maintenance at a later stage. Within 20 days all the necessary work will be done, and I will be presented with the final report,” she said.

Other speakers at the event included Minister of Defense, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, Minister of Labour and Social Protection of Population Salim Muslumov and officer Elshan Garayev who was wounded in the April battles.

Then the event featured the presentation of a project on the provision of soldiers and officers wounded in the April battles with high-tech prosthetics.

Under an agreement between Azerbaijan's MEDICOM company and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Azerbaijani soldiers and officers will be supplied with artificial replacements for their missing body parts produced by the world`s leading manufactures.

One of the most tragic conflicts in the history of the 20th century – Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, that affected the destiny of millions, aggravated on April 2 after the Armenian military units in the occupied lands started shelling Azerbaijan’s positions.

To protect civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched counter attacks and as a result, the Azerbaijani troops retook hills around the village of Talysh, as well as Seysulan settlement, and also took over Leletepe hill located in the direction of Fizuli region.