An event on "Mine-free South Caucasus" was held by the LINKS European Foundation and supported by the European Union on July 19 as part of the 2023 inter-sessional meeting of the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Landmines, Ednews reports.
Elshad Iskenderov, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Special Tasks, addressed the event.
Elshad Iskenderov stated in his address that as a result of Armenia's nearly 30-year occupation, roughly 10% of our country's territory was deliberately contaminated with mines, and more than 1.5 million mines were buried in the mentioned areas.
Emphasizing that the continuation of purposeful mining of our territories is one of the main threats to the achievement of stable peace in the region, to the large-scale restoration and construction works, to the civilian population operating in these areas, as well as to the return of internally displaced persons and to peaceful living in their places, E. Isgandarov spoke about mine victims. He said that 57 of our citizens were killed and 247 were critically injured due to 179 incidents that occurred in the liberated territories between November 2020 and now.
It was also stressed in the speech that Armenia continues to refuse to deliver accurate mine maps to Azerbaijan, in violation of international humanitarian law. Despite the existing problems, it has been reported that one-tenth of Azerbaijan's mine-contaminated territories have already been cleared out. The importance of demonstrating international solidarity, as well as our country's willingness to cooperate with international organizations, was brought to the attention of event attendees in this regard.
Albreöt von Wittke, the representative of the chairmanship of the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Landmines, Marketa Homolkova, the head of the disarmament department of the European Union Delegation, Alexander Maysuradze, the permanent representative of Georgia to the UN Geneva Center, Dennis Sammut, the executive director of the LINK European Foundation, also delivered a speech at the event. The speakers highlighted that landmines remain a huge impediment to lasting peace and development in the South Caucasus region, and that international solidarity is required to address this major humanitarian issue.
