AGHDAM, Azerbaijan, June 13
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The mines planted in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan over the period of occupation of course are huge impediment, Brenda Shaffer, a visiting researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES), a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center told Trend.
Shaffer made the statement during the visit of representatives of the foreign diplomatic corps to Azerbaijan’s Aghdam district.
Commenting on the fact that on June 12 Azerbaijan returned 15 detained Armenians back to Armenia in exchange for providing the Azerbaijani side with maps of 97,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines in Azerbaijan’s Aghdam district, she noted that the returned people were not prisoners of war, as they often are mistakenly referred to.
"These were people that tried to infiltrate and attack Azerbaijanis after the war, these in no way are people carrying put some sort of peaceful activity," she said.
She noted that people were waiting for nearly 30 years to return back to Aghdam.
"These people always felt like they were away from their homes and of course the mines are huge impediment," she added.