There are many dates of significance in Azerbaijan’s calendar. Yet many of them also carry a tragic undertone: on the road to Victory, soldiers and officers of the valiant Azerbaijani Army, led by Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President Ilham Aliyev, lost their lives.

May Allah have mercy on all those who gave their lives

September holds a special place in Azerbaijan’s modern history — in 2020 and 2023. The events of those months became turning points for the country, opening a new chapter in its history. For decades, the Azerbaijani people, regardless of national or religious affiliation, had been paving the way towards them.

Let us turn to individual episodes from Azerbaijan’s modern history — without comment or assessment, focusing solely on the facts that demonstrate the path Azerbaijan has travelled and its place on the world stage.

March 20, 1998. National Leader Heydar Aliyev described the restoration of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, the liberation of the occupied territories and the return of refugees to their native lands as the sacred goal of the Azerbaijani people, expressing his confidence: “We will certainly achieve this goal; the occupied territories will be liberated at any cost.”

October 31, 2003. In his inauguration speech, President Ilham Aliyev stated: “Azerbaijan will liberate its lands at all costs. I believe in a bright future for Azerbaijan.”

March 30, 2019. Armenian Defence Minister David Tonoyan said: “A new war for new territories. We will increase the number of those units that can transfer military operations to the territory of the enemy.”

May 9, 2019. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan danced at Jidir Duzu, a sacred, historic and cultural site symbolic of the Azerbaijani people, in the city of Shusha, which was occupied at the time.

August 5, 2019. Nikol Pashinyan stated: “Karabakh is Armenia, and that’s it.”

October 4, 2019. President Ilham Aliyev stated: “Karabakh is a historical, ancestral Azerbaijani land. Karabakh is Azerbaijan, and an exclamation mark.”

July–August 2020. Armed provocations by Armenia, including the infiltration of sabotage groups into Azerbaijan, resulted in the deaths of a civilian and Azerbaijani servicemen, including senior officers.

September 19, 2020. Arayik Harutyunyan, who called himself the “leader” of the unrecognised separatist entity established on what Azerbaijan considers its sovereign territory, announced plans to relocate the entity’s “parliament” to the city of Shusha.

September 27, 2020. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated: “Armenian armed forces fired on our settlements, as well as our military positions, from several directions this morning, using various types of weaponry, including heavy artillery. As a result of the enemy fire, there are casualties among the civilian population and our servicemen. Some people have been wounded. May God rest our martyrs in peace! Their blood will not remain unavenged. The Azerbaijani Army is currently firing on the enemy's military positions, and as a result of these strikes, many units of the enemy's military equipment have been destroyed […] Our position is based on international law and justice.”

November 8, 2020. President Ilham Aliyev: “The city of Shusha has been liberated from occupation! Karabakh is ours! We will restore all our historical monuments and renovate all our mosques; after 28 years, the azan will once again be heard in Shusha. May Allah rest the souls of all our martyrs who died both in the First and Second Karabakh Wars, which we call the Patriotic War. We are liberating our lands from occupation at the cost of the lives and blood of our people, soldiers and officers. We have achieved this historic victory on the battlefield.”

November 10, 2020. President Ilham Aliyev: “Today is a historic day for our country. With great pride, we can say that Fuzuli is ours, Jabrayil is ours, Zangilan is ours, Gubadli is ours, Aghdam is ours, Lachin is ours, Kalbajar is ours, Shusha is ours, Karabakh is ours!”

November 24, 2020. The heads of four religious denominations in Azerbaijan stated that ethnic cleansing, genocide and the destruction of cultural heritage had taken place during the occupation of Azerbaijani lands, also describing environmental crimes, the use of phosphorus bombs, toxic substances and mines as aggression against universal human culture and world heritage.

2021. A 2021 Azerbaijani government report recorded that, throughout the year, Azerbaijan sent letters to the UN Secretary-General, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, NATO and other international organisations regarding Armenia’s attempts to use what was then referred to as the “Lachin Corridor” (territory of Azerbaijan) for military purposes.

September 1, 2022. Russian billionaire Ruben Vardanyan announced that he was renouncing his Russian citizenship and moving to the stronghold of Armenian separatists, which was then located in the city of Khankendi. In November, he began serving as the separatist entity’s so-called “state minister”.

First half of December 2022. The planned monitoring of the illegal exploitation of mineral deposits in the area where Russian peacekeeping forces were temporarily deployed was not carried out. In protest, Azerbaijani eco-activists launched a peaceful protest on the Lachin–Khankendi road on December 12.

December 23, 2022. During a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stated that Ruben Vardanyan’s criminal activities in Azerbaijan must be brought to an end, as they primarily harmed the local population by obstructing its reintegration.

February 23, 2023. Vardanyan was removed from his “fabulous” position.

April 23, 2023. In order to prevent the transfer of personnel, weapons and ammunition from Armenia to illegal Armenian armed formations on the territory of Azerbaijan, and following Armenia’s unilateral establishment of a checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin–Khankendi road on the Azerbaijani border, units of Azerbaijan’s State Border Service established a checkpoint “on the sovereign territory of our country, on the border with Armenia, at the beginning of the Lachin–Khankendi road”.

September 9, 2023. A certain Samvel Shahramanyan was declared the so-called “president” of the separatist entity in Karabakh.

September 20, 2023. President Ilham Aliyev: “Yesterday, as a result of a terrorist act committed by Armenian armed formations, six Azerbaijani citizens, including two civilians, fell victim to mine terrorism. This is not the first time Armenia has committed terrorist acts against Azerbaijan. Since the end of the Second Karabakh War, more than 300 Azerbaijani citizens have fallen victim to mine terrorism or sustained serious injuries.”

September 21, 2023. Official Baku presented a plan for the reintegration of the Armenian population of Karabakh based on the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

September 27, 2023. Servicemen of Azerbaijan’s State Border Service detained Ruben Vardanyan as he was leaving Azerbaijan for Armenia.

September 28, 2023. Samvel Shahramanyan issued a so-called “decree” dissolving the self-proclaimed entity’s institutions as of January 1, 2024.

October 3, 2023. Arayik Harutyunyan was detained by Azerbaijan’s State Security Service.

September 30, 2024. President Ilham Aliyev: “Today, looking at our compatriots who have returned to Karabakh and East Zangezur, we see the unbreakable spirit of the Azerbaijani people. They have never seen these lands before, yet they eagerly await the implementation of the Great Return programme. I am confident that we will see the same picture when the return to Western Azerbaijan takes place.”

August 8, 2025. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, US President Donald Trump and Nikol Pashinyan signed a Joint Declaration that recorded the initialling by the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia of the text of the “Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations” between the two countries, underscored the importance of opening communications, including ensuring unhindered connectivity between the mainland of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan, and laid the conceptual foundations for the TRIPP project (the Zangezur Corridor).

September 25, 2025. In his address to the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, President Ilham Aliyev stated: “Azerbaijan has entered a new era. We won, both in war and in peace. We ended the occupation and started reconstruction. Justice has triumphed, sovereignty has been consolidated, and peace is de-facto reached. We stand prepared to share our positive experience. The achievements of recent years are not only a victory and success for Azerbaijan. They are also a demonstration that international law must ultimately prevail... Let us together build a world without double standards, where justice is not selective, the rule of law is respected, and peace is achieved not through words alone, but through actions.”

January 5, 2026. President Ilham Aliyev: “From now on, the Azerbaijani people will live in conditions of peace. The positive mood in society and growing confidence in stability and security — all these factors, of course, allow us to move forward successfully and continue addressing all the challenges facing the country.”

February 5, 2026. The Baku Military Court delivered a verdict in the case of a group of ethnic Armenian war criminals. Arayik Harutyunyan was sentenced to life imprisonment.

February 17, 2026. At a public hearing in the criminal case against Ruben Vardanyan, who was charged with crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, terrorism, financing of terrorism and other grave crimes, the verdict was announced, sentencing him to 20 years in prison.

June 18, 2026. President Ilham Aliyev: “Azerbaijan has become an important player in the global energy arena by initiating, financing and implementing large-scale energy infrastructure projects that connect countries across Eurasia and provide essential energy supplies to those in need, particularly at a time when energy supply chains are unreliable and energy security is becoming one of the key factors in the national security of every state. A favourable investment policy has enabled us to attract billions of dollars in investment across various sectors, including the energy sector, and to build pipelines connecting the Caspian Sea with the Mediterranean and Black Seas, as well as Caspian offshore gas fields with European markets.”

September 15, 2026. President Ilham Aliyev: “There is a peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and I am confident that peace will be long-lasting. At least, this is the position of the Azerbaijani state. But we will never forget the atrocities committed against us, against our people. We will never forget the victims of Khojaly, we will never forget our destroyed mosques and our desecrated cultural sites, and this memory will make us even more vigilant. It will not allow us to be deceived by sweet words again or permit any treacherous plans against our people to be carried out again. We must remain vigilant; we are vigilant and, at the same time, we are strengthening our military capabilities. It was precisely thanks to our military strength and the heroism of our sons that we drove Armenia’s occupying army from our lands.”

It is a momentous September for Azerbaijan!

Source: caliber.az