Armenian traces: landmine threats still prevail in Azerbaijani lands Mine carpets & missing minefield maps

Azerbaijan liberated its lands from the Armenian occupation more than two years ago in the autumn of 2020. The consequences of the war have reshaped the regional agenda in multiple directions, facilitating primarily the chances for achieving a long-protracted peace in the South Caucasus.

However, the road to peace remains to be tough due to certain reasons, including the ongoing landmine threat in the liberated Azerbaijani lands given the Karabakh (Garabagh) and East Zangazur regions of Azerbaijan being heavily mined by Armenia since the early 1990s. According to the global mine contamination map provided by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education and Bonn International Center for Conversion, the level of mine contamination in Azerbaijan is classified as “massive” covering a territory of 100 square kilometres.

Liquidation of the fatal landmine threats could be imminent shortly after the war but the reluctance of the Armenian side to assist in mine action by providing the minefield maps has been preventing wean off the mine danger.

The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan has once again urged international condemnation of Armenia for deliberately preventing the facilitation of the ongoing mine action in the liberated Azerbaijani lands.

“Today marks the International Day for Mine Awareness. Mine action cannot wait, and entails holding those, including Armenia, who plant mines indiscriminately & refuse to cooperate in dismantling them, accountable. We must end the enormous human cost they create,” the ministry said in a statement on April 4 – International Mine Awareness Day.

According to the data provided by the Ombudsmen’s Office of Azerbaijan, a total of 289 Azerbaijanis have been trapped by the Armenian landmines post-2020 war, of which 51 could not survive the blasts. The most recent fatality due to the mine explosion was reported on April 2, 2023, when a 19-year-old conscript of the Azerbaijani army was killed in the Terter region. The overall death toll of Azerbaijanis from Armenian landmine explosions since the First Karabakh War in 1991-1994 stands at 3,368, including 357 children and 38 women, who have been killed or injured as a result of mine explosions.

The Azerbaijani official data suggests that nearly one million landmines, including anti-personnel and anti-tank explosives, have been planted by Armenia in the once-occupied lands since the early 1990s. After the end of the 44-day war of in November 2020, more than 300,000 landmines have been defused, per data compiled by the Mine Action Agency of Azerbaijan (ANAMA). In 2022, a total of 12,313 landmines were found and neutralised.

The difficulties related to mine action, according to ANAMA, stem from indiscriminate mine planting by Armenia, including in cemeteries, reservoirs, rivers, gardens, and sown areas. These are mines that are designed specifically for the annihilation of people. In 131 cases, ANAMA recorded an explosion of cluster munitions prohibited by international conventions.

“Landmine carpets” & missing minefield maps

The Karabakh and East Zangazur regions of Azerbaijan had been carpeted by landmines since they fell under Armenia’s occupation in the early 1990s. Armenia launched a full-blown military aggression against Azerbaijan shortly after the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991. The bloody war ended in a ceasefire reached in 1994, which resulted in Armenia occupying 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized territories. Over 30,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and one million others were expelled from those lands in a brutal state-sponsored ethnic cleansing campaign carried out by Yerevan.

On September 27, 2020, the decades-old conflict between the two countries took a violent turn after Armenia’s forces deployed in occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During the counter-attack operations that lasted 44 days, Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli and Shusha, from the Armenian occupation. The war ended with the signing of a tripartite statement on November 10, 2020, by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, under which Armenia also returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani government rolled its sleeves shortly after the war to kick off mine action in the liberated territories to expedite the reconstruction work and return internally displaced people to their homes. Despite extensive efforts over more than two years, demining operations have been facing many challenges due to Armenia’s refusal to hand over maps that would be key in locating the landmines.

Azerbaijan obtained minefield maps of the once-occupied Aghdam, Fuzuli and Zangilan districts from Armenia, which were expected to help identify the locations of 189,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Armenia also provided the Azerbaijani side with mine maps of other liberated territories. In exchange for maps, Azerbaijan released dozens of Armenian saboteurs detained in Azerbaijani territory after the ceasefire.

Despite the high hopes for the maps to assist in the faster discovery and neutralization of the booby traps, the Azerbaijani officials confirmed that their accuracy did not exceed 25 per cent. Furthermore, ANAMA said they were only 2 per cent effective in mine action.

There is a big chance for long-awaited peace in the South Caucasus, which surfaced after Azerbaijan restored sovereignty over its internationally recognized territories. Today, Baku is mobilising all efforts to fetch peace for the sake of a better future for the region. However, these efforts are pushed back by certain factors, including the existing mine threats. The international community should react to this challenge by pressuring Armenia to assist in the mine action. Otherwise, according to international experts' estimations, it would take nearly 30 years and $25 billion for Azerbaijan to get rid of the mine danger.