On October 15, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev raised the Azerbaijani flag in the former capital of Nagorno-Karabakh Khankendi (Stepanakert).
After raising the flag, the head of the Azerbaijani state made a speech.
This was reported by the press service of the President of Azerbaijan.
The text of Aliyev’s speech has not yet been published. The Azerbaijani leader visited other settlements of Karabakh and raised flags there – in Khojaly, Askeran, Agdere.
How the Karabakh conflict ended
In 1988, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its secession from the Azerbaijan SSR.
As a result of the 1992-1994 conflict, Azerbaijan lost control over the region and 7 adjacent regions.
For 30 years the region existed as the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic with its capital in Stepanakert.
In the fall of 2020, another escalation ended with the conclusion of an agreement beneficial for Baku: Yerevan lost all the areas around Karabakh and a number of territories that were part of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Okrug, and a Russian peacekeeping contingent was stationed in the region.
Armenia has never recognized the NKR, and the head of the Armenian government, Nikol Pashinyan, has repeatedly stated that Yerevan considers Karabakh to be Azerbaijani territory.
On September 19 of this year, Azerbaijan launched a military operation in Karabakh. Through the mediation of Russian peacekeepers, Yerevan and Baku agreed on a truce, including the withdrawal of Armenian forces.
Later, several rounds of negotiations took place between the Karabakh Armenians and Baku.
Aliyev announced the restoration of Azerbaijan’s control over the entire region, and the NKR announced the cessation of its existence from January 1 next year.
