President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev planted the flags of his country in Khankendi, as well as in the territory of Sarsang reservoir in Tartar district and Agdara. The process of integrating Karabakh into the Azerbaijan state began after the last remnants of the "Dqr infrastructure" were removed. Symbols are the main element in this process.

Axar.az reports that this was said by Russian pro-Armenian political scientist Sergey Markedonov.

"The current President of Azerbaijan was elected for the first time 20 years ago, on October 15, 2003. And I note that it is not at all close to the 99.9% level. At that time, he received only 79.46% of the votes. At that time, Aliyev seemed to many only as the heir of the great father. However, throughout his subsequent political career, Ilham Aliyev destroyed the stereotype that "talented families have untalented children" - showing himself as a strong fighter both in the domestic political and international world. Of course, it is not only about personal qualities. Baku was influenced by many factors: the self-reevaluation of the Karabakh factor within Armenia, the change of political generations in this country, the interest of Russia and the West in Azerbaijan and relations with it (for many different reasons), as well as the lack of bright leaders and attractive ideas among the Azerbaijani opposition. But you need to be able to take advantage of the current situation. Therefore, the personal factor should not be underestimated.

When talking about the integration of Karabakh, it is necessary to clarify the nuances. It will be the integration of the land, not the people. The entire construction of Azerbaijan will take place without the participation of Armenians. Of course, it is possible that a small part of them will return to Karabakh, but it will no longer be a large society with which it is necessary to discuss certain special rules. Just as ethnic Azerbaijanis contributed to the establishment of the Armenian SSR, Armenians also contributed to the establishment of the Azerbaijan SSR. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, not "state-nation" but "nation-state" projects began to be required. Stepanakert is no more, Khankendi will be. And this is not just a change of toponymic stages. This is where symbolic power comes into play. Stepanakert was named after the leader of the Baku Commune, Bolshevik-Leninist and internationalist Stepan Shaumyan (1878-1918). "Internationalism (whether proletarian or bourgeois) is not fashionable today in the former USSR as a whole, especially in the South Caucasus," he said.