BAKU, FEB 17  —  President Ilham Aliyev once again clearly and unequivocally stated at the Munich Security Conference that Nagorno Karabakh is an ancient Azerbaijani land, well-known Russian expert and TV presenter Yevgeny Mikhailov told.

According to him, this was a reasoned message by the head of the Azerbaijani state to Armenia and the entire international community.

“In my opinion, at the Munich Security Conference, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan looked absolutely faded and his arguments on the Karabakh issue for those present were rather feeble, in contrast to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who clearly expressed the position of his people and state based on international law. Pashinyan had essentially nothing to say in response, which was noted in Armenia itself, where there were remarks from representatives of the Republican Party that accused him of weakness,” Mikhailov said.

“It can easily be seen even in the official photos where they shake hands, where small-stature Pashinyan, instead of looking like the ‘proud’ Armenian eagle depicted on the coat of arms of his country, embarrassedly lowered his eyes and looked away from the President of Azerbaijan towering over him. I think that this is all that can be said about the politics of present-day Yerevan,” the Russian expert said.

The analyst noted that the Azerbaijani president convincingly defeated Pashinyan with facts on Karabakh at the Munich Security Conference.

Panel discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were held between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 15.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.