BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 5
By Jani Babayeva - Trend:
Transferring additional landmine maps to Azerbaijan is a serious step toward demining and preparing Azerbaijan’s liberated territories for full restoration, Stanislav Pritchin, a senior researcher at the Center for Post-Soviet Studies at the Russian National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), told Trend.
According to Pritchin, namely, such steps of the Armenian side are necessary to begin fully restoring the lands which for a long time were under the control of Armenia.
“These territories are now difficult to restore, because the absence of the maps and the huge number of planted mines, of course, slow down this process and require enormous resources,” he said.
“Transfer of the landmine maps is a serious step toward regulating and preparing this region for a full recovery readiness of the Armenian side on the issue of the Zangezur corridor, transport routes, as well as creates a positive atmosphere for the process of delimitation of borders," added the expert.
As earlier reported, on July 3, Armenia submitted maps about the location of nearly 92,000 mines in Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli and Zangilan districts to the Azerbaijani side in exchange for the transfer of 15 Armenian arrested servicemen. Before that, the maps about the location of 97,000 mines in Azerbaijan’s Aghdam district were submitted.
Azerbaijan liberated the districts from Armenian occupation due to Second Karabakh War (from late Sept. to early November 2020).