On April 9, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev participated in the international forum “Facing the New World Order”, held at ADA University in Baku. During an open discussion, the head of state gave a firm and candid assessment of the recent incident involving the display of a flag of the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh regime” on the official website of the President of Germany.
According to Aliyev, the incident, which occurred shortly before the official visit of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Baku, caused serious indignation from the Azerbaijani side.
“We were all very surprised to see that. And frankly speaking, I’m trying to be as frank as possible. As always, it was very difficult for us to think that this was a mistake because Germany is a country with long, long traditions of statehood. All the attributes are carefully taken care of.”
Aliyev emphasized that the image of the flag of a non-existent separatist entity was accompanied by the mention of “Nagorno-Karabakh”, which he regarded as a political provocation.
“It was not only the flag, which was a flag of separatists, an already dead separatist entity. There was also a comment where we saw Nagorno-Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh does not exist. It exists, as we say, only in the dreams of Armenian revanchists and those who support them.”
“The torn flag, probably in the minds of those who put that picture, meant that maybe the so-called wounded Artsakh. That was the message to Azerbaijan. We took it very seriously.”
The President said that the Azerbaijani side considered postponing the visit if no official apology was issued. Initially, according to him, the reaction of the German ambassador was restrained and an official apology was rejected. The intervention of Presidential Assistant Hikmet Hajiyev became the turning point — after direct contact with President Steinmeier’s administration, a written apology was received, and the image was removed from the website.
“If there hadn’t been an apology, then probably the time of the visit could have been changed. We took it very seriously. It was not simply a mistake — it was a blow to very sensitive issues.”
He separately stressed that he personally trusts the President of Germany and is convinced that Steinmeier was unaware of the incident.
“He told me this himself, and I fully believe him,” Aliyev noted, adding that in Azerbaijan, in similar situations, an apology would be issued immediately, without any request.
Despite the incident, Ilham Aliyev described the visit as successful and meaningful. According to him, it was the first official visit of a German President to Azerbaijan in the history of bilateral relations. The two sides held substantive discussions and paid special attention to economic cooperation and EU-related dialogue.
“We consider this visit, by the way, the first visit of the President of Germany to Azerbaijan, as an important milestone in our relationship. All the messages, which were given from Baku by both presidents, were extremely positive and timely. I think that this is also a good message to the business communities of our countries to engage more actively in the bilateral track.”
The President also touched upon Germany’s political role in the European Union. He expressed hope that the new German government would pursue an independent and balanced policy toward Azerbaijan, despite pressure from certain pro-Armenian groups within the EU.
“There is one country in the European Union which does a lot of bad things to Azerbaijan and pretends to be a leader without any grounds. The leading economy is Germany, and the leading political force in Europe is Germany. So, I hope that the European Union will not fail under the influence of pro-Armenian groups there.”
