Azerbaijan deliberately halted military operations at decisive moments in 2020 and 2023 to prevent further bloodshed and move toward peace, President Ilham Aliyev said.
A video highlighting the remarks was published in the president’s official social-media accounts on October 4, two days after Aliyev delivered the speech at the eighth congress of the New Azerbaijan Party, according to Vesti Baku.
The clip focused on why Baku did not continue its military campaigns after achieving its stated objectives. Aliyev said strategic calculation and the Azerbaijani people’s core interests, rather than emotion, should determine state policy.
Aliyev Says Baku Stopped at the “Right Moment”
According to the official transcript of the October 2 speech, Aliyev said Azerbaijan stopped at the right moment during the 44-day war in 2020 and again in September 2023.
He said Azerbaijan did not want a permanent war and sought peace after securing its military objectives. “There is no place for emotions in politics,” Aliyev said.
The president added that a more emotional approach could have led to a third Victory Arch being built in central Yerevan. The remark was presented as a counterfactual example; the address did not announce a new military operation or make a new territorial claim.
The October 4 video was also covered by Report and APA.
A Message About Force and Diplomacy
Aliyev’s broader October 2 speech covered sovereignty, military strength, economic policy, transit and social issues. The newly highlighted passage placed a separate emphasis on restraint after military objectives had been achieved.
In the official account, military power was presented not as a basis for extending conflict indefinitely, but as a means of securing a political result and then moving to a diplomatic stage.
The emphasis is significant as the peace process between Baku and Yerevan remains unfinished. It links Azerbaijan’s military gains to a transition toward diplomacy while retaining firm rhetoric about the costs and legacy of the earlier conflict.
The October 4 post did not report a new meeting or presidential decision. It gave renewed prominence to a specific part of an earlier speech, explaining the government’s stated rationale for stopping operations in 2020 and 2023.