Armenia will lose if hostilities resume with neighboring Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azeri Presideint Illham Aliyev said.

“I have no doubt that Armenia will flee the battlefield if the active phase of the war starts,” Aliyev said in remarks broadcast on the state television channel AzTV today. “We have every opportunity to regain control of our territory.”

Armenians seized Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts from Azerbaijan in a war that killed some 30,000 people and displaced more than a million. Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered cease-fire in 1994, though the sides have yet to sign a peace agreement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at zagayev@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm at htromm@bloomberg.net