Success that no one has managed to repeat - five years after Azerbaijan's Victory

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, in his program interview, which he traditionally gives to domestic TV channels at the beginning of the year, said that our victory in the Second Karabakh War shifted very large layers, both political and characterological.

"Many people would probably like to repeat our success, but no one has succeeded," President Ilham Aliyev said, expressing hope that everyone who is still fighting today will come to understand the simple truth - war is the worst thing that can happen to a person and a country.

Yes, war is the worst thing that can happen to a country and to a person. In the end, everyone who starts wars comes to this truth. If the aggressor is big and strong, understanding takes longer to achieve the goal, and if it is small, it takes faster. But sooner or later, the war hits everyone who expected to earn benefits from it and build their well-being on someone else's grief. Those who were attacked had no choice. The aggressor always has a choice. You can always stop and think again before taking a fatal step.

Azerbaijan was a victim of aggression, and it had no choice. He couldn't help but fight against the aggressor in the early 90s, he couldn't help but fight for the liberation of his lands in 2020. But all this has only made the country stronger, both physically and mentally. Azerbaijan got rid of rosy hopes for international law and world justice and learned to rely only on itself. Before he won, he went a long way to build his strength. He was preparing for victory systematically. President Ilham Aliyev generally takes a systematic approach to all issues. Especially on issues of war and peace. Because the modern world is unpredictable, and no one can guarantee that wars in our region are a thing of the past.

President Ilham Aliyev's answers to the questions of television journalists contain clear political, diplomatic, and economic touches that form a unified picture of the country's path not only over the past year. 2025 was an anniversary year and full of events that, to a certain extent, drew a line under the previous stage of the country's development. The five post-war years were a very serious test of strength for Azerbaijan and its President. The degree of this strength has been experienced by many. And everyone received subtle and sharp messages from President Ilham Aliyev on January 5.

President Ilham Aliyev has taught another lesson in diplomacy, shown how to correctly draw conclusions from his successes, capitalize and institutionalize them. Azerbaijan had no one to look up to, because there were no other such examples when the country had liberated its lands by military means after thirty years of occupation. There was no one to share the experience. But reason told me that it was impossible to rest on our laurels, as President Ilham Aliyev said, to devote our lives to celebrating victory. The years of occupation, the war, and the victory were all tests from which Azerbaijan learned the right lessons.

"The Karabakh war has clearly demonstrated both our advantages and those areas where we must actively work to improve governance, including in order to achieve better results. Because war is always, even if it is victorious and as victorious as ours, it is always an indispensable experience to draw conclusions. And that's exactly what I was starting from. Knowing our strengths perfectly well, at the same time we worked to fix what needed to be fixed. It wasn't much, though. But, as they say, there is no limit to perfection," the head of state said.

You have to be able to win. One must be able to both prepare for victory and keep a cool head in order to maintain and multiply success. The policy pursued by Baku after the Second Karabakh War can be called a real master class. At that time, it seemed to many that Azerbaijan had reached its maximum and was not capable of anything more. In an interview with TV channels, President Ilham Aliyev literally explained step by step how this idea broke down.

Indeed, everyone remembers the disappointment of November 10, when the war stopped without a flag over Khankendi. However, at the same time, everyone remembered the words of President Ilham Aliyev that he knows what, how and when to do. And the Azerbaijani leader proved that these were not just words.

"Not a single action that we took from November 2020 to September 2023 was either spontaneous, emotional, or detached from reality. Everything was subordinated to one goal - to convince Armenia of the harmfulness of continuing the policy of miatsum. To some extent, this was successful, and in October 2022, Armenia officially recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.

It was important, but that wasn't all, because it was in words, but in fact everything was going on. The supply of mines, the rotation of military personnel, the financing of the army, the supply of weapons - all this continued, despite the official recognition of Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. Then we had to take other actions both on the conditional border with Armenia and in the part where the Russian peacekeepers were stationed. And we did it regardless of anyone, no matter what, because we knew we had to do it. If we hadn't done this, then there would have been no August 8th. And there would still be no peace, and the separatists would still be at ease, feeling protected and challenging the Azerbaijani state," President Ilham Aliyev said.

We remember each of the steps taken by the head of state. Each decision was thought out to the smallest nuances and, without too much pathos, I must admit, it was brilliant. It is enough to recall the action on the Lachin road. It was a brilliant move that drove both the separatists, Yerevan, and the Russian peacekeepers into a corner. Armenia's allies were also disarmed, who had nothing left but senseless fuss. Every action of Baku was verified and related to the previous and subsequent steps. The scenario of total victory written by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief has never misfired. The counter-terrorism operation of September 2023 literally stunned the enemy and his support group.

The five post-war years were not cloudless for Azerbaijan, spent with music and fireworks. Having won a military victory, the country found itself under massive diplomatic and political pressure from world powers who did not want to put up with the fact that a small state, without asking permission, turned regional geopolitics upside down. President Ilham Aliyev is right: Azerbaijan's victory has indeed shifted very large strata, both political and characterological. The philosophy of regional geopolitics began to change, and external players wanted to prevent it.

Azerbaijan has been under real pressure for some time. It was a battle, but on a diplomatic plane. And Baku won this battle too. President Ilham Aliyev said this in an interview as follows:

"During this time, there have been a lot of disturbing processes in our region with the participation of Azerbaijan, and, diplomatically speaking, not related to Armenia. And we came out of all these difficult trials with dignity, without compromising with our conscience, first of all, and with our dignity, and proved to everyone who needed to that we need to be treated with respect and we will not tolerate rudeness, arrogance and attempts at dictate."

We will not specify to whom this message was addressed. Although the head of state did not name specific addresses, each addressee, I think, heard.

The five post-war years have shown that even a small country may not dance to the tune of the world's giants if it is self-sufficient, capable of making sovereign decisions and does not need anyone's tutelage. And the most important thing is if it has a leader who is united with his people and knows exactly what, how and when to do.

In the new coordinate system that was formed after the Second Karabakh War in the region, the old rules no longer work. In an environment where international law breathes heavily, the rules are dictated by the one who is stronger. And the South Caucasus is very lucky that Azerbaijan turned out to be the strongest, a country that does not want to fight, does not want to humiliate, trample and annex anyone. Azerbaijan has a good experience of internal stability, and regional stability can be built on the same principles. By ourselves, through joint efforts and without outsiders. And also without regard to international law, which is archived. However, it has ceased to operate since the end of the 80s. And our country became one of the first, if not the first victims of the dying process of the world order created after the Second World War. When the Western world, which is the foundation of international law, supported the Armenian aggression, this foundation began to crack. And today the whole building is in ruins.

Once upon a time, international organizations and international mediators advised Azerbaijan to come to terms with the realities. Today, Azerbaijan has forced everyone to recognize and accept the new realities that it has created.

"If a few years ago there were attempts to cover up some hostile actions with quasi-international legal formulas, now this is no longer the case. No one is interested anymore in who says what, and no one is interested in which organization adopts which resolution. We see the events taking place in the world, wars, conflicts. And what do they say in the so-called democratic Europe? "We are concerned," "we are monitoring the situation," "we are considering our position."... That is, when international law is violated, the strong man is right. This is not our choice, and we have always adhered to it, and we have always been on the side of justice. We have never done anything that would not be consistent with justice. Everything we did was based on justice: historical, legal, and human. But the world has changed. We do not live in the world that exists on paper - in the UN Charter - but on the real earth; therefore, we must be strong, and that is exactly what we are trying to do. And I recommend every state to do the same," President Ilham Aliyev said.

Azerbaijan is going its own way. Not counting on anyone and not expecting any miracles. But faith in justice remains. However, not to the world, but to the one that the country is able to achieve on its own.