“Over the past 17 years we have received repeated signals from various places, from outside circles that we should take five districts now and be content with it. We were told that we had been defeated in the war, that Armenia had won – the implication was the first Karabakh war. We were told to come to terms with this reality. The five districts we were being given were described as a big deal, while Lachin and Kalbajar were supposed to be left for later. We were also told that when we granted independence to Nagorno-Karabakh, then part of these districts could be transferred to us,” said President Ilham Aliyev as he addressed the nation.