23:56, 5 April 2021

Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of refusing to provide maps of minefields

An officer at ANAMA preparing to detonate the mine. March 16, 2021. Photo by Aziz Karimov for the "Caucasian Knot"

After the escalation of the Karabakh conflict in 2020, 106 Azerbaijani citizens were blown up by mines, and Armenia still has not provided its maps of mined territories, Baku reports. The UN has allocated one million US dollars to Azerbaijan for mine clearance.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the demining work is underway in Nagorno-Karabakh after full-scale hostilities in the autumn of 2020. The demining activities involve combat engineers of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, as well as the Russian peacekeeping contingent.

On December 1, 2020, two Karabakh soldiers were killed during demining in Nagorno-Karabakh. People, including civilians, are more often killed by mines in the conflict zone territory, which came under the control of Azerbaijan. According to the information released by the General Prosecutor’s Office of Azerbaijan, in the period from November 10, 2020, to February 9, 2021 along, 74 people were blown up by mines.

Armenia still keeps in secret its maps of minefields, and as a result, people continue to die in the conflict zone, says Khikmet Gadjiev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan.

He also pointed out the negative impact of mines on the environment. “The soil is exposed to chemical pollution when mines remain underground for a long time,” the APA quoted Khikmet Gadjiev as saying.

The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocated one million US dollars to Azerbaijan to clean up the territory from mines, reported Charu Bist, a UNDP Resident Representative.

By refusing to provide the maps of minefields, Armenia violates the norms of international law, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan emphasizes as quoted by the “Azertac”.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 5, 2021 at 06:03 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.