Azerbaijani, Russian emergency officials eye cooperation
By Vafa Ismayilova
As part of his visit to Russia, Azerbaijan`s Emergencies Minister Colonel General Kamaladdin Heydarov met his Russian counterpart Yevgeny Zinichev, Azertag reported on February 5.
The sides broadly discussed the current state of and prospects for cooperation between the ministries. They noted that the events, visits, as well as meetings held as part of the close cooperation between the two ministries, provide opportunities for further expanding relations, the report added.
The ministers exchanged views on appropriate humanitarian measures taken in the liberated Azerbaijani territories, including the process of demining and training of Azerbaijani pyrotechnic-specialists. Representatives of the relevant rescue teams of both ministries joined the meeting via video conference.
A delegation of Azerbaijan`s Emergencies Ministry then viewed the activity of the National Crisis Management Center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry.
In early January, the Russian Emergencies Ministry's crew of 20 people begun to demine the territory of Azerbaijan's newly-liberated Aghdam region. The Azerbaijani and Russian Emergencies Ministries were also involved in joint 45-day training courses on demining and cleaning Aghdam region from unexploded ordnance. The demining and cleaning operations initially on 100 hectares of the liberated territories of Aghdam region. It was reported back then that the work was planned to be completed within three months.
On February 4, President Ilham Aliyev described the mine clearance operations on Azerbaijani territories recently liberated from Armenian occupation as one of the priority tasks before the country. He stressed that the most state-of-the-art equipment of the world's leading manufacturers must be brought to Azerbaijan to ensure the demining in such a way that the country manages to start the restoration work in a short time and citizens can return to their lands after the completion of construction work.
On February 4, one soldier was killed and two were wounded in an explosion in Aghdam region. In late January, two Azerbaijanis were wounded in Tartar and Aghdam regions. One civilian was killed and two were wounded in Fuzuli region on February 2.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry revealed on December 22 that 6 civilians and 6 military servicemen were killed and 7 civilians and 14 military servicemen were injured in landmine blasts after the war ended on November 10, 2020.
A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10 brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.
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