"Hidden Seeds of Death": Landmine threat vs Azerbaijan's mine action
The presentation of the book "Hidden Seeds of Death", published by the international magazine "IRS", took place in Baku on April 4.
The event coincided with the worldwide celebration of the International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
“April 4 is a sad day for the world community, and at the same time a day of pride. Sad, because the number of mine victims is growing every day, but at the same time, a day of pride, because the number of people who are trying to fight this problem is growing,” said Sultan Hajiyev, an official from the Azerbaijani presidential administration, in his opening speech, Caliber.Az informs.
According to him, one of the priority goals of Azerbaijan at the moment is the demining of the liberated territories.
“No matter how difficult it would not be a task, I believe that we will overcome this problem," Hajiyev said.
The next speaker of the event, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Fariz Rzayev, noted that the presentation of this book is timely and reflects all the horrors that Azerbaijan faces on the path of rebuilding the liberated territories.
“Our country has a painful experience with mines. The conflict with Armenia has already ended, but to this day people are trapped by mines laid by them.”
Chairman of the Mine Action Agency of Azerbaijan, Vugar Suleymanov, for his part, said the government of Azerbaijan marks the mine action as a top priority in restoring liberated lands and seeks international assessment in this regard.
According to him, Baku considers declaring the humanitarian mine action as a national Sustainable Development Goal.