ArmInfo. Azerbaijani Ex President Ayaz Mutalibov reacted to the Armenian first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan's statement on Artsakh.
"I know Ter-Petrosyan as a pragmatic politician, and if he makes such statements, it means, he understands that the development of Armenia lays through peace with Azerbaijan. The both stated need peace, and I am happy that Ter-Petrosyan sends this message to the Armenian people. I had to meet with him repeatedly. He is a very smart person, and I must say that I have never seen hatred for Azerbaijan from his side. If he holds out his hand to us, then we should not reject it. Yes, our territories were occupied during his presidency, in no case we should forget about these tragic pages of our history, but at the same time we need to really assess the situation," said Mutalibov to haqqin.az.
According to him, the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples should look forward, think about the prosperous future of their countries, the region. Mutalibov is confident that there is no other choice: either Armenia and Azerbaijan will be forever enemies, or we must find the strength to agree on peace.
"I always believed and believe that there is no alternative to peaceful coexistence. It requires political will on our part, and on the Armenian side, to solve this painful problem. Nobody will solve this task for us - neither the OSCE Minsk Group nor any other group. We all must prepare our peoples for peace," concluded Mutalibov.
To note, in his last interview, the first president, the leader of the Armenian National Congress-People's Party of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, presented a peace program that provides for an early peaceful settlement of the Karabakh problem by returning territories controlled by Artsakh in exchange for NKR status.