97 mines neutralized in Azerbaijan in May
By Rashid Shirinov
Azerbaijan’s National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) cleared a territory of 1,633,964 square meters in May, the Agency reported on June 12.
ANAMA stated that its staff discovered and defused 409 unexploded ammunition, 81 anti-tank mines and 16 anti-personnel mines during the month.
The demining operations involved 489 sappers and 136 members of the administrative staff, as well as six cars on remote clearance and 34 dogs.
Mine clearance operations were conducted in Absheron, Agjabadi, Agdam, Agstafa, Jabrayil, Fizuli, Tartar, Gabala, Siyazan regions, as well as in the cities of Ganja, Mingachevir and the Guzdek settlement in Garadagh district of Baku.
In general, ANAMA cleared a total of 402,398,761 square meters of Azerbaijan’s territory, discovered and defused 761,889 pieces of unexploded ordnance during 10 years of its activity.
Most of the unexploded ordnance is the result of Armenian aggression. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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