Azerbaijan is going to mark the 25th anniversary of its independence. During the early years of independence, Azerbaijan has become a target of the Armenian terrorist attacks. The conflict still remains unsolved, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.

The president made the remarks during the opening of the 4th Baku Global Forum on March 10.

The head of state said in case that the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is solved, nearly one million refugees and displaced persons will return to their native lands.

“As long as Armenia continues the occupation, it isolates itself further. As a result, poverty is growing in Armenia,” he added.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a native land of Azerbaijan, and all states and international organizations recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan, President Aliyev noted.

“20 percent of Azerbaijani lands are under occupation. The UN Security Council resolutions require withdrawal of occupying forces from our lands. The mechanism of the implementation of these resolutions should be a topic of discussions,” he said. “In some cases, the resolutions of the UN Security Council are implemented within hours or days, in our case – it’s more than 20 years.”

Armenia is trying to maintain the status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakhconflict, the president said, stressing the inadmissibility of the status quo.

“The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs also stated that the status quo must be changed. Thus, Armenia should withdraw its armed forces from the occupied territories. In the 21st century it is absolutely abnormal from all points of view, political, legal, humanitarian, to illegally occupy the territory of a neighboring country and block the negotiation process. After liberation of the occupied territories, Azerbaijan can gain greater economic success. The UN Security Council must force Armenia to fulfill the resolutions and put an end to occupation. Our mosques and historical monuments were destroyed in the occupied territories. The OSCE fact-finding mission has also confirmed it during both visits to the region. Today, we are also witnessing the destruction of historical monuments in the Middle East. However, the destruction of Azerbaijani historical monuments was not prevented earlier,” said the president.

The head of state said one million of people became refugees and internally displaced on their own land – at that time the population of Azerbaijan was something more than 8 million.

He recalled that at the time Azerbaijan was different from today’s Azerbaijan, it was a very poor country, a newly independent state, the economy was ruined, the industry was collapsed, and there were no prospects for the future.

“Today the country is stable. All the fundamental freedoms are provided, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, religious freedom, media freedom, we have free internet, and more than 70 percent of our people are internet users,” he concluded.