Armenia's lingering hostility Mine terror persists post-Karabakh war

According to the official resolution of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly of December 8, 2005, April 4 has been declared the International Day of Mine Risk Education and Assistance in Mine Action.

For Azerbaijan, which has faced the problem of mine terrorism since the occupation of its territories by Armenia, this is an extremely urgent issue. Since it is Armenia's policy of mine terrorism that has resulted in Azerbaijan being among the countries most contaminated by mines and unexploded military munitions in the world. Statistics also confirm this.

According to preliminary estimates, more than 1.5 million mines have been buried on the Azerbaijani lands during the Armenian occupation. Since the end of the Second Karabakh War, 350 of its citizens have fallen victim to mines, 65 of whom were killed and 285 seriously injured. In general, since the beginning of Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan, about 3,429 of the citizens have suffered from mines, 595 of them have died, among them 357 are children and 38 are women.

Armenia's mining of Azerbaijani territories continued until September 2023. In particular, the remnants of the Armenian army in the Karabakh region used the Lachin road to transfer mines to Karabakh. In this regard, last January Baku appealed to the International Court of Justice to oblige Armenia to stop the mining of Azerbaijani territories and the use of the Lachin road to transfer mines to Karabakh.

At the same time, in response to Armenia's targeted violation of human rights against Azerbaijanis, Baku submitted a second application to the International Court of Justice for urgent action within the framework of the international convention "On the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination", which provides evidence that Armenia, since 2021, continues to place mines in Azerbaijani territories and booby traps in homes.

According to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, more than 2,700 mines produced in Armenia in 2021 have been found in Azerbaijan since August 2022 and there is evidence that they were placed after the signing of a trilateral statement by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia on November 9, 2020.

Azerbaijani civilians continue to die as a result of Armenia's mine terror, Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration, wrote in social network X today.

"Mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices continue to cause deaths and injuries to our civilians, hinder reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts, as well as the return of IDPs. Among the victims are civilians, as well as children," Hajiyev noted, drawing the attention of the international community to the problem of Armenia's mine terrorism.

The fact that this fact creates serious obstacles to the search for mass graves and exhumation of bodies of victims of Armenian militants is also noted in today's report of the Azerbaijani State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons.

"In many cases, demining of territories by specialists in the burial sites of missing persons, established by the State Commission, takes a long time. This circumstance aggravates the suffering of our citizens, who have been waiting for more than thirty years for news about their missing relatives, and is a vivid example of Armenia's disrespect for international humanitarian law," the report says.

Azerbaijan, in turn, since the beginning of the post-war period, has been carrying out large-scale demining work in the liberated territories, with more than 90 per cent of the work being carried out using the country's internal resources. Despite cooperation with some foreign partners, unfortunately, overall external support is limited.

President Ilham Aliyev always speaks about the serious mine problem faced by Azerbaijan, emphasizing that huge financial resources are allocated in the state budget for the implementation of demining operations in the liberated territories in Karabakh.

Thus, in 2021 alone, over AZN 100 million ($58.8 million) was envisaged for these purposes, of which about AZN 98 million ($57.6 million) was spent. And in 2023, a total of 53,100 hectares of territory in the territories liberated from occupation were demined by the Azerbaijan Mine Action Agency (ANAMA) jointly with other structures. In general, by March 1, 2024, more than 123,000 hectares of land were demined and 114,730 mines and unexploded ordnance were neutralized. In 2024, it is planned to demine 60,000 hectares of territory.

It should also be noted that humanitarian demining is one of the main priorities of Azerbaijan's state policy, the foundations of which were laid on the initiative of national leader Heydar Aliyev. As a consequence, Azerbaijan makes a significant contribution to the humanitarian demining process at the global level. By the way, the second international conference held in Baku in May 2023 entitled “Mine action - the path to reaching Sustainable Development Goals” was devoted to this subject.

Speaking about Azerbaijan's activities in the field of humanitarian demining, it is worth noting separately that in the Non-Aligned Movement, which Azerbaijan led for almost 4 years, an agreement was reached on the establishment of a Contact Group for consultations and practical cooperation in this field. At the same time, it was on Azerbaijan's initiative that UNESCO adopted a special resolution on the impact of mines on cultural values as a special area of protection of cultural heritage during armed conflicts.

But, as is well known, the demining of liberated territories is greatly hampered by the lack of accurate maps of minefields. Unfortunately, Yerevan has never provided Baku with accurate maps of minefields. In this regard, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry noted early last month that Armenia refuses to provide accurate maps of minefields under various pretexts. Today's statement by Azerbaijani Ombudsman Sabina Aliyeva in connection with the mine explosions in Tartar and Aghdam also notes that the international community should not remain silent in the face of Armenia's mine terror against the inhabitants of Azerbaijan.

By the way, the Turkish Foreign Ministry's calls for Armenia to provide Azerbaijan with accurate mine maps fit into the same context. "We call on Armenia to provide Azerbaijan with accurate mine maps. We will continue our strong support on the ground and internationally to countries fighting mine risks," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on April 4.

According to international experts' calculations, Azerbaijan will need about 30 years to fully resolve the issue of demining the territories, and during this period, undoubtedly, new facts of innocent people's deaths will be recorded. In this regard, today, when the whole world celebrates the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, Baku once again calls on the international community to take consistent measures to condemn the mine threat from Armenia, to submit mine maps by that country and to provide due support for the elimination of the mine threat in Azerbaijan.