(MENAFN- AzerNews)
Fatima Latifova
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Humanitarian demining efforts in Azerbaijan and NATO's support
for these activities have been discussed, Azernews
reports, citing Samir Poladov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the
Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA), as he told
during an official visit to Luxembourg.
As part of the visit, the Azerbaijani delegation held bilateral
meetings with Orkhan Muradli, Director of the Operations Support
Division of NATO's Support and Procurement Agency, and other
officials.
During the meetings, there was an exchange of views on
Azerbaijan's mine problem, NATO's support, the implementation of
new technologies and advanced practices, and prospects for future
cooperation in the field of humanitarian demining.
Note that despite attempts at formally requesting information
about the location of those mines, Armenia repeatedly denied that
it possessed the relevant information and refused to engage on the
issue.
Finally, in February this year, Armenia submitted 8 minefield
maps of territories located in the liberated lands to Azerbaijan.
These maps cover some of the areas along the former contact line.
However, the maps covering part of the former contact line passing
through Khojavand, Tartar, and Goranboy districts, as well as the
areas mined by Armenian military units when they retreated in
November 2020, have not been submitted yet.
Many have suspicions about these maps because previous minefield
maps submitted by Armenia were inaccurate. Only 25 percent of these
maps were correct. Especially submitting minefield maps of the
height where civilians do not live increases this suspicion. It is
also worth noting that more than 55% of recent landmine cases have
occurred outside the areas covered by the information provided.
The behaviour that Armenia displayed in relation to the landmine
threat is indeed another setback to the peace and
confidence-building measures taken during the post-conflict period
in the region.
It is worth noting that because of Azerbaijan's liberated
territories remain contaminated with mine, the new infrastructure
and green energy projects remain a risky and problematic goal.
These obstacles to a legal peace are part of the challenges facing
the repopulation, development, and integration of the liberated
territories on the path to a full peace.
The Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action, known as ANAMA,
has grown from a fledgling organisation to one fully equipped to
clear mines, provide risk education, and assist survivors of
accidents. Today, ANAMA's efforts are aimed at continuing the
increase and expansion of mine action capacity to provide the
clearance of all liberated areas of Azerbaijan.
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