Hikmet Hajiyev: Azerbaijan faces significant mine contamination issue

Azerbaijan, both before the 2020 44-day war and during the post-conflict period, has repeatedly demanded Armenia to submit landmine maps.

The accuracy of landmine maps, the existence of which was denied by Armenia following the signing of the Trilateral Statement dated November 10, 2020, but later was submitted as a result of international pressure, is only 25 per cent. Although these maps show that only 400 thousand landmines were reportedly deployed in our territories, the actual number of landmines surpasses one million.

More than 55 per cent of landmine explosions in recent years occurred in locations outside the areas where maps were provided by Armenia.