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Over 21 square kilometers to be cleared within Jeyranchol project third phase

26 September 2017 13:15 (UTC+04:00)
Over 21 square kilometers to be cleared within Jeyranchol project third phase

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) has announced launch of the third stage of Jeyranchol Project, aimed at the clearance of an area located on the Georgian-Azerbaijani border from mines and unexploded ordnance.

Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov, who participated in the presentation event in Baku on September 26, noted that 532 people died and 2,491 were injured since 1991 due to the explosion of mines and unexploded ordnance in Azerbaijan.

He stressed that the problem of unexploded ordnance in Azerbaijan can be divided into two categories- those in the territories occupied by Armenian armed forces and lands liberated from the occupation, and those in military bases and training grounds left by the Soviet army.

Sharifov further added that more than 45,000 hectares have been cleared from mines and unexploded ordnance in Azerbaijan so far, and hundreds of thousands of mines and ammunition have been defused.

In 1955-1991, the former Soviet Army military testing and training field located in Jeyranchol was in an active use. The clearance of the total area of 64 square kilometers was divided into three phases.

The first phase involved the clearance of 19 square kilometers of the western section of the range during April 2012 – July 2014. As many as 173 anti-tank mines and 14,654 UXOs were found and destroyed. The second phase of the project started in July 8, 2014 and continued for two years. Within this phase an area of over 23 square kilometers was cleared and 1,553 UXOs and many tens of thousands of items of debris were defused.

The third phase started in January 2017 and is estimated to finish in 2018. The final phase comprises an area of more than 21 square kilometers.

The Jeyranchol project is implemented in the framework of the ANAMA-NATO cooperation.

NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai, who participated in the event, said that NATO and Azerbaijan have a trustworthy partnership.

He noted that Azerbaijan supports the peacekeeping activities carried out as part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan and other regions.

Both Azerbaijan and NATO benefit from this cooperation, he said adding that NATO highly appreciates the cooperation with Azerbaijan.

The history of Azerbaijan-NATO relationship dates back to March 1992 when Azerbaijan together with some Central and Eastern European countries, joined a newly established consultative forum – the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), which was transformed into the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council later in 1997.

Azerbaijan's cooperation with NATO is also carried out in the framework of the Partnership for Peace program. The country makes significant contributions to freight transport for peacekeeping operations, while Azerbaijani servicemen contribute to ensuring security in Afghanistan.

Besides, NATO keeps in the focus the issue of security of the oil and gas pipelines in the South Caucasus region that pass through the territory of Azerbaijan as well.

ANAMA was established in 1998 for planning and coordination, management and monitoring of mine action related activities all over the country.

Since the creation of ANAMA, its staff has cleared more than 40,000 hectares of Azerbaijan’s territory, discovering and defusing over 760,000 mines and unexploded ordnance.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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