On November 1, Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, arrived in Algeria for a visit to attend the Summit as a Guest of Honor at the invitation of the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, which hosts the 31st Arab League Summit, the Press Office of the Azerbaijani President reported.
Ilham Aliyev attended the event's opening ceremony as a Guest of Honor at the invitation of Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, who hosts the 31st Arab League Summit. Aliyev stated: "Today, I paid respect to the memory of the martyrs. I visited the Memorial of the Martyrs. I visited the Museum of Moudjahid and was deeply impressed and shocked by what I saw. The brutality and mass atrocities committed by France against the people of Algeria are something the world should never forget. France conducted a terrible war against the Algerian people for more than 130 years, which resulted in the deaths of more than one and a half million Algerians. Today, as we commemorate this tragedy, we need to do everything to avoid similar tragedies in the future."
"We give special importance to our bilateral cooperation with the members of the Arab League, and we highly value the mutual support and solidarity between us. Azerbaijan is a country that, like Algeria, suffered from occupation for 30 years. Armenia occupied our lands, and during all these years of occupation, we always felt the support of our Arab brothers and the support of member states of the Organization of Islamic States. Azerbaijan, in turn, has always supported our Muslim brothers in all international forums. We contributed largely to Islamic Solidarity," he added.
"During the occupation, more than one million Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs. Our people became the subject of ethnic cleansing. Armenia committed the genocide of the Khojaly in 1992, which is now recognized by more than ten countries. The UN Security Council adopted four resolutions demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from our territories, but these resolutions never materialized. And this leads to another important factor, which is the mechanism for implementing Security Council resolutions,” Aliyev stressed.
"Today, visiting the Museum of Moudjahid, I was informed that France planted more than 5 million landmines during the French occupation. It reminded me of the same, of what we are suffering now. Armenia planted more than 1 million mines during the occupation. After the war ended in November 2020, more than 260 Azerbaijanis were killed or severely injured because of the landmines. We are doing it ourselves. We will restore our lands ourselves, and we are already in the process," he concluded.
It should be recalled that in recent months there has been a diplomatic crisis between Azerbaijan and France. French President Emmanuel Macron supports Armenia in the still unresolved conflict with Azerbaijan, which has led to Aliyev's verbal attacks on Macron. "Literally a week after the meeting in Prague, the French president made insulting, unacceptable, false and provocative statements. He accused Azerbaijan of waging a terrible war, thus manipulating the facts and trying to mislead the French and international community," Aliyev had said at the CIS summit in Astana in mid-October.
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