By Vugar Khalilov
The Azerbaijani and Turkish demining experts continue mine
clearance operations on territories liberated from Armenia's
occupation in the last year's war, the Defence Ministry reported on
September 22.
The Azerbaijani army's engineer-sapper units and Turkish
military sappers are demining roads in the liberated lands to
ensure the safe movement of the military convoys, the report
added.
Furthermore, new supply roads are being constructed to the
mountainous areas, where the Azerbaijani army units have been
deployed.
On the liberated territories, Azerbaijan's engineer and sapper
units have earlier been supplied with the MEMATT (Mechanical
Demining Supply) equipment produced by Turkey's ASFAT company under
the Turkish National Defence Ministry. The equipment is highly
effective in clearing settlements and arable lands from mines and
unexploded ordnance.
As a result of mine clearance activities, over 11,900 hectares
of land have been cleared of mines and over 16,000 mines and
unexploded ordnance have been defused by the engineer-sapper units
in the liberated lands, the ministry said.
It added that the operations to detect and defuse mines and
unexploded ordnance in the liberated lands are underway.
It should be noted that Azerbaijan’s Mine Action Agency (ANAMA),
along with the partner countries, carries out demining activities
on its liberated territories.
Some 160 Azerbaijanis have been killed or injured in the
explosion of mines planted by Armenians in Azerbaijan’s formerly
occupied regions since the end of the war in autumn 2020 that saw
Azerbaijan liberate most of its territories in and around the
Nagorno-Karabakh region.
On June 12, Azerbaijan handed over 15 Armenian prisoners in
exchange for a map detailing the location of 97,000 mines in
formerly-occupied Aghdam.
On July 3, Armenia submitted to Azerbaijan maps of about 92,000
anti-tank and anti-personnel mines planted during the occupation of
Fuzuli and Zangilan regions.
In his interview to CNN Turk channel on August 14, President
Ilham Aliyev said that the accuracy of the maps provided by Armenia
at the latest stage is only 25 percent.
The scale of destruction in Azerbaijan’s formerly occupied
territories suggests deep hatred and animosity against
Azerbaijanis, with many experts describing these mass destructions
as genocide.
Azerbaijan and Armenia resumed the second war after that latter
started firing at Azerbaijani civilians and military positions
starting September 27, 2020. The war ended on November 10 with the
signing of a trilateral peace deal by the Azerbaijani, Russian and
Armenian leaders.
The peace agreement stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's
Armenian-occupied Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the
signing of the deal, the Azerbaijani army had liberated around 300
villages, settlements, city centres and historic Shusha city. 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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