Azerbaijan, Poland eye Karabakh peace deal, Armenia's refusal to supply mine maps
By Vafa Ismayilova
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau have discussed the fulfilment of the Karabakh peace deal, Armenia's refusal to provide maps of land mines and the regional situation, the Foreign Ministry reported on its website on March 11.
In a telephone conversation that took place on March 11, Bayramov briefed Rau about the work done by the Azerbaijani government to ensure the implementation of the November 2020 Karabakh peace deal and the January 2021 agreement on unblocking all transport and communication lines in the region. The Azerbaijani minister drew the Polish counterpart's attention to mine blast casualties on territories liberated from Armenia's occupation.
Bayramov added that the mines planted by Armenia pose a direct threat to people's lives on a daily basis and reiterated that Armenia still refuses to provide mine maps to Azerbaijan.
Polish Minister Zbigniew Rau stressed the importance of the implementation of the November and January trilateral statements signed by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders, the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations and the role of international organizations in this process.
The ministers also exchanged views on various issues of the bilateral cooperation agenda, including the successful continuation of the political dialogue, the expansion of cooperation in the economic sphere, in particular, the activities of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation, as well as high-level reciprocal visits, including visits at the parliamentary level. During the telephone conversation, the sides also discussed other issues of mutual interest.
Some experts believe that Armenia has spent $350 million to mine lands in and around Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region that were liberated from occupation in the 44-day war.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on February 26 described Armenia’s failure to provide the maps of mined areas in liberated lands as the main difficulty for Azerbaijani IPDs to return to their homes. He said that this can also be considered to be a war crime as several servicemen and civilians were killed in mine blasts on liberated territories after the war.
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