We must prepare our people for peace.

Axar.az reports that Presidential Assistant and Head of the Department for Foreign Policy Affairs of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev, said this at the Doha Forum in Qatar.

The presidential assistant noted that for Azerbaijan, war and conflict are over.

According to him, peace should create prosperity, ensure development, and transform the entire geopolitical landscape of the South Caucasus. Highlighting the importance of trust between peoples, Hajiyev stated that Azerbaijan wants peace to be lasting, permanent, and irreversible:

“We must work very hard for this. We know that there may sometimes be forces that want to disrupt peace. We must establish a regional security architecture that can withstand all negative tendencies against peace. For that, trust between governments is needed first. I am pleased to say that elements of trust are forming between the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments. This is an important foundation. But more importantly, trust between peoples is needed. We must prepare our peoples for peace. Azerbaijan’s message has always been that we do not want to sign a peace agreement only with the Armenian government — we want to sign it with the Armenian people as well, so future generations can benefit from it. We are working on confidence-building measures. We know this is difficult. The wounds in our society are still fresh: 30 years of conflict, escalations over the last five years, and real war. But what matters most is that Azerbaijan has taken regional leadership and responsibility.”