President Ilham Aliyev has been credited with saving Azerbaijan from the image of a state whose territory was occupied, Azernews reports. This was stated by Member of the Milli Majlis Fazil Mustafa at a special parliamentary meeting on the topic “Washington Agreements: A Triumph of Peaceful Diplomacy and Wise Leadership”, Azernews reports.
According to Mustafa, the Washington meeting and agreements are a continuation of Azerbaijan’s long-term efforts to restore its territorial integrity:
"The great dreams of the Armenians through the Azerbaijani lands were destroyed. The OSCE Minsk Group, which has not been active for 33 years, has been abolished. Now Ilham Aliyev is presenting the Armenian people with a model of being a useful neighbor," he said.
Mustafa also highlighted the historical importance of opening the land border with Nakhchivan, describing it as a key step toward achieving full territorial connectivity:
"The biggest goal ahead at the moment is to reach the whole of Azerbaijan. The establishment of a corridor with Nakhchivan is the next step towards this goal."
Other lawmakers emphasized the significance of the Washington Declaration. Member of the Milli Majlis Gudrat Hasanguliyev described it as a preliminary peace agreement. Zahid Oruj, chairman of the Human Rights Committee, stressed that the Declaration contains no demands regarding Karabakh or the return of ethnic Armenians:
"Finally, the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group with the firm position of Azerbaijan – the end of the existence of the monopolistic association that protected the occupation after the First Karabakh War – is a true event of independence. In the last 30 years, no organization has voluntarily ceased its activities," Oruj said.
He added that the opening of the Zangazur corridor, referred to as the Trump Road in the Declaration, will transform the region into a transit hub benefiting all, rather than a zone of geopolitical tensions:
"Unification with Nakhchivan without obstacles, without any border checks, means changing the defeated fate of our grandfathers. If Rasulzade, Narimanov, Bagirov were alive, they would say – Ilham Aliyev is the leader of all centuries because he returned what we lost."
Member of the Milli Majlis Kamal Jafarov called the agreements a logical result of Azerbaijan’s recent military, political, and diplomatic victories:
"The Joint Declaration signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia under the witness of US President Donald Trump is the full acceptance by the whole world of the new realities that our country has created in the region, and a triumph of an independent policy based on international law and national interests. The Washington agreements also confirm global recognition of Azerbaijan's conditions regarding the Zangazur corridor."
Jafarov noted that the consensus reached in Washington will help build a new geopolitical architecture in the South Caucasus based on mutually beneficial models:
"Today, Azerbaijan has become the beating heart of the transport, communication, and economic map of Eurasia. With the opening of the Zangazur corridor, we will restore direct communication with Nakhchivan and turn it into an important transport link connecting the Asian and European continents. The corridor will also strengthen the geographical unity of the Turkic world and make Azerbaijan’s strategic position at the intersection of East-West and North-South corridors indispensable."
