Armenia continues carrying out provocations on Azerbaijan's territories A statement by the MFA

According to information by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence, 350 anti-personnel landmines produced by Armenia in 2021 were discovered towards the northern direction of the Saribaba Height, dug by Armenian armed units that did still did not withdraw from Azerbaijani territories. We recall, that since August of this year 1,119 landmines have been discovered and neutralized in the Kalbajar and Lachin districts between the Azerbaijani and Armenian border. In the Karabakh Economic district 1,609 landmines have been discovered with an Armenian production date of 2021 (a total of 2,728).

The Commander of the Russian Peacekeeping Mission that is temporarily deployed to the territory of Azerbaijan,  Major General Andrey Volkov, the Director of the Turkish contingent of the joint Turkish-Russian Monitoring Center, Major General Fatih Akpinar as well as the Director of the Russian contingent Rear Admiral Oleg Semenov have been invited by the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry to observe the landmine fields and the process of their extraction on November 23. The military attachées of several foreign states and journalist accredited in Azerbaijan have visited the sight on November 24, as Caliber.Az reports citing the foreign ministry’s press service.

“The shown conditions have again demonstrated, that Armenia did not completely withdraw its armed forces from Azerbaijan’s territory, breaching points nr. 4 and 6 of the trilateral statement from November 10, 2020. Armenia has abused the Lachin road for the passing of landmines to illegal armed actions and has therefore committed a provocation against Azerbaijan.

The continuation of Armenian military provocations on Azerbaijani territories, the failure to completely withdraw forces from our territories and the continuation of placing landmines into our territories in a targeted manner are the main threats that disrupt the major restorative and construction works in the post-conflict period and the disturb the civilian population that works on those territories, as well as harms the return of peaceful living of forcefully displaced peoples.

We recall, that since the end of the Patriotic War in 2020 up until today, a total of 268 citizens have been harmed through landmines with 45 having passed away, including 3 journalists. 35 of the 45 citizens were civilians.

The above mentioned prove once again, that Armenia is disrupting the normalization process and the peace building efforts in the region. This activity of Armenia is a war crime, which seriously breaches international humanitarian law and the obligations, that Armenia has taken upon itself within the trilateral agreement”, the statement by the foreign ministry reads.