(MENAFN- AzerNews) Baku hosted an event themed“Team Europe Initiative on MineAction in Azerbaijan” on Friday.
In his opening remarks, Head of the European Union (EU)Delegation to Azerbaijan Peter Michalko noted the EU sparing noefforts in collaborating with Azerbaijan across various domains,including the mine threat issue.
Addressing the event, Assistant to the President of the Republicof Azerbaijan, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of thePresidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev said:“The Republic ofAzerbaijan faces a significant challenge due to landmine andexplosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination, resulting fromnearly three decades of military occupation by Armenia. Azerbaijanranks among the most heavily mine-contaminated countries globally,with an estimated 1.5 million landmines and an unknown number ofERWs contaminating around 12% of the nation's territory. This posessevere risks to civilians and hinders socio-economicdevelopment.
From the end of the war in 2020 until April 27, 2024, there havebeen 212 landmine explosion incidents, resulting in 356 victims,including women and children. These incidents underscore the urgentneed for mine clearance and victim assistance. Over the last 30years, the cumulative toll of landmine victims in Azerbaijan hasreached 3,435.
Armenia's refusal to provide accurate maps of the landmines itplanted on Azerbaijani territory complicates demining efforts andobstructs the return of 800,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs)to their homes.”
“Given the immense adverse humanitarian impact, and consideringthat lingering landmine contamination represents a challenge toachieving peace and reconciliation, Azerbaijan relies on adequatepolitical and practical support from the international communityfor its demining efforts as a matter of human solidarity.
Given Azerbaijan's relatively developed institutional capacityand training frameworks, the most critical form of assistanceneeded at this juncture is direct financial donations to amplifythe scope of operations,” Hikmet Hajiyev noted.
“Other priorities include mine victim assistance, technicalsurveys and feasibility studies, data management, technologicaladvancements, implementing geospatial methodologies, technologylayering to refine clearance needs, support for female deminingteams, mechanical demining enhancement, mine detection dog (MDD)training, demarcation, fencing, and explosive ordnance riskeducation (EORE),” the Assistant to the President emphasized.
Highlighting Azerbaijan's International Initiatives to RaiseAwareness and Foster Cooperation on Mine Action, Hikmet Hajiyevstated:“Internationally, Azerbaijan's efforts extend beyondseeking foreign assistance for its landmine issue to raisingawareness and fostering international cooperation and solidarity has spearheaded the following initiatives:
- Hosting annual international mine action conferences inAzerbaijan. Jointly organized with UNDP, these conferences havebecome the key venue for political dialogue on mine action. Thenext conference is scheduled for May 30-31, 2024, in Zangelan andBaku, focusing on the environmental impact of landmines-a topicaligned with our presidency of COP29. We look forward to high-levelparticipation from the EU and its member states.
- Initiating the NAM Contact Group on Humanitarian Demining recommendation by President Ilham Aliyev, the NAM adopted adecision last year to establish this contact group, which commencedits activities in September.
- Highlighting the adverse impact of landmines on culturalheritage. Azerbaijan is a strong advocate for the protection ofcultural heritage during armed conflicts. In 2016, Azerbaijansponsored a UNESCO military manual on protecting cultural property year, UNESCO adopted a landmark resolution on the impact oflandmines on cultural heritage. As a direct follow-up to thisresolution, a special conference is now being held in Aghdamdedicated to this topic.
-Together with the UN, Azerbaijan is establishing a UNDP-ANAMACenter of Excellence for mine action training. Azerbaijan isalready aiding other nations with similar problems by sharing itsexperience and know-how. The establishment of this center willsignificantly augment the training assistance capacity of ANAMA support from our international partners, including the EU, forthe establishment and activity of this center will have amultiplying effect.
- Azerbaijan adopted a national SDG on mine action and initiatedthe adoption of a global SDG within the UN,” Hikmet Hajiyevmentioned.
“Regarding today's main theme, as His Excellency President IlhamAliyev noted a few days ago, mine action could become one of themost important pillars of Azerbaijan-EU cooperation. In thiscontext, we appreciate the announcement of the“Team EuropeInitiative to support Azerbaijan's mine action efforts” as apractical follow-up to the high-level political dialogue. Thismechanism is intended as a framework to coordinate and mobilizeassistance from the EU and its member states. Indeed, such aninitiative is long overdue.
We look forward to learning more details about this initiative,most notably its financial parameters. We hope the level of fundingwill be commensurate with the size of the problem we are facing, we expect that identifying priorities for practicalprojects within the Team Europe Initiative will be based on hostcountry ownership. What we need is actual demining. As PresidentIlham Aliyev said:“If you don't want to give the money to usdirectly, you could give it to a company that will come and demineif you wish to help.
The EU has a unique chance to support peace and development inthe region. We hope that launching this Team Europe Initiative willbe the first step in ensuring an even-handed approach in EU'sassistance policy toward the region and in upholding the objectiveneeds of Azerbaijan, as the only side which suffered hugely fromthe former conflict,” the Presidential Assistant added.
Other speakers at the event included Gert Jan Koopman,Director-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations ofthe European Commission and Vugar Suleymanov, Chairman of the Boardof Azerbaijan's Mine Action Agency (ANAMA).
Following the screening of a video on landmine threat, PeterMichalko briefed the participants about the Team Europe Initiativeon Mine Action.
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