"We knew that military obstacles were being built and areas were being mined to prevent the lands from being relesed from occupation. We knew this before the 44-day war. However, we never imagined that Azerbaijani lands would be polluted so unfairly."

Umud Mirzayev, president of the International Eurasia Press Fund, chairman of the public council under ANAMA, said these words. He noted that after the civil war, a total of 276 people fell victim of landmines, of which 123 were civilians and 153 were military personnel. As a result of the mine explosion, 45 people were killed (35 civilians, 10 military personnel), 231 people were severely injured (88 civilians, 143 military personnel).

"This is actually ecological terrorism, a crime against humanity. The most terrible thing is that most of the landmines were buried by violating military rules. For a long time, they used hundreds of excuses not to give the maps of buried landmines to Azerbaijan. Through the mediation of the West, Armenia submitted to Azerbaijan a map of the areas where 97,000 mines were buried in Agdam. Then, on Russia's initiative, Armenia gave Baku a map of 92,000 mines buried in Fuzuli and Zangilan. At the last moment, it turned out that these are also useless maps. None of the discussions and appeals were of any use. The most terrible thing is that these mines are manufactured in Yerevan."

The IEPF president noted that today Azerbaijan is one of the countries with the most mines in the world. It will take a long time to clear the mines.

"The events that have taken place show that our people should not ignore the existing standards related to mine safety for a moment. On December 14, 8 people fell into a mine in Chirag village of Kalbajar district. Also, 4 soldiers who went to the scene of the evacuation were hit by a mine, 3 of them were injured and 1 died. In fact, this is a huge disaster. There is already a great tragedy in the 8 families. In order to prevent these cases, it is necessary to observe the maximum certain standards. As if this is a trap, Armenians are engaged in planting mines in the border regions as soon as they have the opportunity. A large part of these mines is produced in Yerevan. The world community should pay attention to this. The government of Armenia is quite responsible for the commission of these crimes, and they must answer."

By Oghuz Ayvaz

Translated by Elnur Enveroglu