“During the fighting that has been ongoing for four days now, the Azerbaijani Army successfully conducted an operation and liberated strategic heights and several settlements. We are returning to these lands after a long break. We have hoisted our flag on these lands and no-one can take us out of these lands. We must restore our territorial integrity,” President of Azerbaijan, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev said in a meeting with servicemen wounded in the aftermath of Armenia's military provocation launched on 27 September and being treated at the Central Military Clinical Hospital of the Defense Ministry as he spoke about the counter-offensive operation of the Azerbaijani Army.

Emphasizing that the Armenian people must understand this, the head of state said: “The Armenian people must understand that it is a crime to occupy the land of another state for 30 years, destroy all buildings and historical sites, expel more than 1 million people from their homeland and commit genocide against the Azerbaijani people. We are restoring historical justice, historical justice! Karabakh is our native, ancient and historical land. Suffice it to look at the history of the Karabakh khanate to see that the people of Azerbaijan have lived, built and created on these lands for centuries. Our sacred city of Shusha was built by the Azerbaijanis. The lands under occupation today are our historical lands. Our cause is the cause of justice. We want to restore our territorial integrity, we have the right to do so, we are doing it and we will do it.”