(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31. Internationalorganizations must exert pressure on Armenia to release mine maps,thereby accelerating the demining process of Azerbaijan's liberatedlands, MP Sevinj Huseynova told Trend .
According to her, Azerbaijan is currently the country mostaffected by mines.
"During the 30 years of occupation, Armenians installed numerousmines in our territories. Armenia's mine terrorism against ourcountry continued even after Azerbaijan liberated its lands fromoccupation in the 2020 second Karabakh war. After the trilateralstatement signed on November 10, 2020, the Armenian side, grosslyviolating the provisions of the statement, continued the miningprocess on Azerbaijani territory," the MP said.
She pointed out that Azerbaijan is currently among the countriesmost contaminated with mines.
"Since the second Karabakh war, about 100 Azerbaijanis have beenkilled or injured by mine explosions. Mines are also the biggestobstacle to reconstruction and construction work in the liberatedterritories.
After the second Karabakh war, Armenia claimed that it did nothave mine maps, but later it disclosed some of them, which turnedout to be inaccurate. Such behavior by Armenia contradictsinternational conventions and constitutes a criminal offensebecause people are becoming victims of mines in these territories,creating a serious obstacle to the return of our compatriots totheir homeland," she emphasized.
The MP mentioned that international organizations should respondto this and put pressure on Armenia to disclose mine maps, therebyaccelerating demining efforts.
Commenting on the issue, political analyst Ilyas Huseynovhighlighted that holding various conferences and roundtables on theprocesses taking place in the entire region is essential.
"The international demining conference is being held in Zangilanat Azerbaijan's initiative for the third time. The country ranksamong the world's most landmine-contaminated areas. Millions ofanti-personnel and anti-tank landmines, as well as unexplodedordnances from the first and second Karabakh wars, are planted inKarabakh and Eastern Zangazur. These landmines and unexplodedordnances claim lives.
I especially want to emphasize that Azerbaijan is conductingdemining using its own resources and financial means, andinternational donor organizations are not providing adequateassistance. Drones, special technical equipment, mine-detectiondogs, and other support are needed.
The mine threat prevents our former internally displaced personsfrom returning to their native lands as soon as possible," headded.
To note, after the second Karabakh war, more than 360 peoplehave become landmine victims in Azerbaijan's liberated areas,resulting in 68 fatalities and over 290 injuries.
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