Sawt Falasteen - Victorious Aliyev says fulfilled Azerbaijani 'dream' in Karabakh

Dressed in military attire, the longtime leader flew the blue-red-green flag in what Azerbaijan calls Khakendi and Armenia Stepanakert, cementing Baku's conquest after last month's lightning offensive.

The September 24-hour military operation led to the exodus of nearly all ethnic Armenians from Karabakh.

It was the first time Aliyev set foot in the city since it fell to Armenian separatists in the 1990s.

"We achieved what we wanted. We fulfilled the dream the Azerbaijani people have lived with for decades," Aliyev said in a victory speech.

The vast majority of the estimated 120,000 ethnic Armenians that had been living in the territory have since fled across the border to Armenia.

He said his country has "waited 20 years" to see Azerbaijani rule in Karabakh.

"This victory will stay in our history forever," he said, triumphantly.

His trip came exactly 20 years since Aliyev became president of Azerbaijan, succeeding his father Heydar Aliyev.

The authoritarian leader said he had longed to take control of Karabakh since rising to power.

"Twenty years ago, when I began to fulfil my official duties as president, I set myself a number one task," he said.

"So that on all territories, on all lands, in all towns and villages, that at the time were under occupation, the Azerbaijan would fly."

Aliyev stood in the city which had turned into a ghost town virtually overnight after the Azerbaijani offensive, with almost its entire population fleeing

- Visits towns, fortress -

Baku published images of the longtime leader in military attire on his knees, kissing the Azerbaijani flag before it was raised on a flagpole.

It said he also visited a reservoir and an ancient fortress, as well as other towns.

The 61-year-old posed in front of mountains and water, holding pomegranates -- a fruit associated with the region -- in one of the photographs.

Aliyev's visit came as Pope Francis on Sunday called for the protection of Karabakh's ancient Christian Armenian monasteries and churches.

The Catholic leader spoke after his traditional Angelus prayer in Saint Peter's Square in Rome:

"Beyond the humanitarian situation of the displaced people, which is serious, I would like to appeal for the protection of the monasteries and places of worship in the region."

He called on the new authorities and "all inhabitants" to respect the places of worship "in an expression of faith and a sign of a fraternity that allows us to live together in our differences."

Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of "ethnic cleansing" in Karabakh, which Baku denies.

Aliyev's trip came after he met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at a meeting of ex-Soviet leaders in Kyrgyzstan, which Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan did not attend.

While Aliyev did not go to a European summit for talks with Pashinyan earlier this month, his office has said that he intends to travel for Brussels talks with the Armenian leader.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh since the dying days of the Soviet Union.

The mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh was populated mainly by Armenians and became part of Azerbaijan under Soviet rule, in the years following the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.

The neighbours went to war twice over the territory: in the 1990s and in 2020.

E.AbuRizq--SF-PST