President: Armenia destroys whole of Azerbaijan’s cultural legacy in occupied lands

Azerbaijan has made significant achievements in social, economic, political life, said the country's president, Ilham Aliyev, at the opening of the 4th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku.

"Azerbaijan is a relatively young independent country, though a country with great history, traditions and culture," he said. "But as an independent country we're only 25 years old. Last year we celebrated the 25th anniversary of restoration of our independence."

The president went on to say that this year clearly demonstrates that when the fate of your country is in your hands, you can achieve great success.

"Azerbaijan, for centuries, has been a part of different countries, empires. And 25 years of independence, clearly demonstrate that only being free, we can achieve success. Never in the history of our nation, Azerbaijan was as strong as it is today," President Aliyev said.

He went on to say that today Azerbaijan is a rapidly developing, dynamic, modern country, which is very close to its roots, traditional roots.

At the same time, Azerbaijan is open to the world, he added.

President Aliyev has called Armenia`s occupation of Azerbaijani lands “the only problem our country faces”.

“Azerbaijan`s Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent districts are under occupation. The policy of ethnic cleansing was conducted against Azerbaijan, all our mosques were destroyed,” said the head of state.

“We restored an Armenian church in the center of Baku, but Armenia destroyed the whole of our cultural legacy in the occupied lands. This was confirmed by the fact-finding missions of the OSCE,” he stressed.

President Aliyev went on to say that Armenia continues to ignore the UN Security Council`s four resolutions on the liberation of the occupied territories. “In some cases, UN resolutions are implemented in just hours, but these resolutions relating to Azerbaijan have not been implemented for years, which is a sign of double standards,” he added.

“The Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be solved within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh is a historical Azerbaijani territory, its legal part,” President Ilham Aliyev said.

For about three decades Armenia and Azerbaijan are in a state of war following Yerevan’s aggression, ethnic cleansing policy and illegal territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenia keeps under control over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions in a brutal war in the early 1990s.

Despite a fragile ceasefire agreement signed in 1994, Armenia keeps violating armistice with Azerbaijan.