Fortunately, Azerbaijan has neither existing nor potential internal risks.
elchi reports that President Ilham Aliyev stated this at the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum.
“Fortunately, Azerbaijan has neither existing nor potential internal risks. All risks are formed outside our borders. Risks of a political nature are very minimal. We do not consider risks related to ideological provocations to be serious either. Because there have been many such attempts so far, but none of them have succeeded. The Azerbaijani state and society are unshakably committed to the principles enshrined in our Constitution. Physical dangers, of course, exist. Given the nature of modern wars, today almost no country can consider itself completely safe. Especially for a country located between two states waging war, this is the main danger. Moreover, both the course of those wars and their subsequent consequences are completely unpredictable. War itself is a great tragedy. But a long-lasting war is no less dangerous. It is not known in advance what state countries will be in after the war and how they will solve the problems that have arisen. Therefore, the main risk for us is attempts to involve Azerbaijan in some adventures. Previously, such attempts were mainly political in nature. We were able to successfully avoid them, and as a result, those attempts have almost stopped,” the head of state said.
President Ilham Aliyev noted that now these dangers have taken on a more serious and dangerous character: “But we are used to protecting ourselves. We are also used to fighting against combined pressures. Strengthening our security, our borders, and our defense system against various threats has been one of my main directions of activity since 2003. I will continue to do this as long as I have the strength. This process will never end. Last year, we were discussing whether it was possible to breathe a sigh of relief. There will be no such opportunity. Even after winning the Second Karabakh War in 2020, we did not stop for a moment. We had no time to rest or celebrate for a long time. Because one could celebrate in such a way that one would lose everything later. We immediately started preparing for the next stage. After 2023, open threats and attempts at sanctions against Azerbaijan began. Since then, we have been fighting against those pressures on various fronts. By the way, a little while ago, while talking about the criteria of the ‘middle power’ concept, I forgot one point. One of them is the ability to resist on many fronts simultaneously. I do not want to compare our situation with other conflicts. Usually, a country is supported by a group of states, while another group opposes it. Our situation was completely different. We had to defend ourselves simultaneously in many directions, not in the physical, but in the political and diplomatic plane. This process continues today. Therefore, there will be no quiet life. Let no one hope for that.”