Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Armenia of preparing for a new war. He stated this in an interview with Azerbaijani TV channels, Interfax-Azerbaijan reports.

“They are preparing for a new war. There is a concentration of their forces not far from the line of contact. We see everything, we track everything, ”Aliyev said and warned that Azerbaijan would defend itself.

In his words, the Armenian authorities deliberately go to provocations to escalate the Karabakh conflict, including illegal settlement of “Nagorno-Karabakh”.

Aliyev also called the clashes on the border in July a consequence of the provocation of Yerevan. “This is an armed provocation, and it is not a secret for anyone that Armenia started it,” the Azerbaijani leader stressed. “We do not have any military targets in the territory of Armenia.”

There has been a territorial dispute between Baku and Yerevan for 30 years over Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1991, the region, inhabited mainly by Armenians, declared independence from Azerbaijan, which tried to return it by force. The war broke out, in 1994, the parties, with the mediation of Russia, signed a truce protocol. However, hostilities periodically resume. In July 2020, clashes took place on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, 300 kilometers from Karabakh. The total losses were 18 people.