BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31. International organizations must exert pressure on Armenia to release mine maps, thereby accelerating the demining process of Azerbaijan's liberated lands, MP Sevinj Huseynova told Trend.
According to her, Azerbaijan is currently the country most affected by mines.
"During the 30 years of occupation, Armenians installed numerous mines in our territories. Armenia's mine terrorism against our country continued even after Azerbaijan liberated its lands from occupation in the 2020 second Karabakh war. After the trilateral statement signed on November 10, 2020, the Armenian side, grossly violating the provisions of the statement, continued the mining process on Azerbaijani territory," the MP said.
She pointed out that Azerbaijan is currently among the countries most contaminated with mines.
"Since the second Karabakh war, about 100 Azerbaijanis have been killed or injured by mine explosions. Mines are also the biggest obstacle to reconstruction and construction work in the liberated territories.
After the second Karabakh war, Armenia claimed that it did not have mine maps, but later it disclosed some of them, which turned out to be inaccurate. Such behavior by Armenia contradicts international conventions and constitutes a criminal offense because people are becoming victims of mines in these territories, creating a serious obstacle to the return of our compatriots to their homeland," she emphasized.
The MP mentioned that international organizations should respond to this and put pressure on Armenia to disclose mine maps, thereby accelerating demining efforts.
Commenting on the issue, political analyst Ilyas Huseynov highlighted that holding various conferences and roundtables on the processes taking place in the entire region is essential.
"The international demining conference is being held in Zangilan at Azerbaijan's initiative for the third time. The country ranks among the world's most landmine-contaminated areas. Millions of anti-personnel and anti-tank landmines, as well as unexploded ordnances from the first and second Karabakh wars, are planted in Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur. These landmines and unexploded ordnances claim lives.
I especially want to emphasize that Azerbaijan is conducting demining using its own resources and financial means, and international donor organizations are not providing adequate assistance. Drones, special technical equipment, mine-detection dogs, and other support are needed.
The mine threat prevents our former internally displaced persons from returning to their native lands as soon as possible," he added.
To note, after the second Karabakh war, more than 360 people have become landmine victims in Azerbaijan's liberated areas, resulting in 68 fatalities and over 290 injuries.
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