Armenia hinders the normalization process and efforts to establish peace in the region, TurkicWorld reports on November 24 via the statement of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
The statement was made in connection with the new fact of the detection of mines of Armenian production in the territory of Azerbaijan.
"According to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense, 350 anti-personnel mines of the PMN-E type, produced in Armenia in 2021, were found in the northern direction of the Sarybaba height, which were planted by Armenian armed formations which haven’t yet withdrawn from the territory of Azerbaijan,” the statement said. “Since August of this year, in the Kalbajar and Lachin directions of the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, 1,119 mines were found and cleared, and in the territory of the Karabakh economic region - 1,609 mines produced in Armenia in 2021 (2,728 in total).”
“At the invitation of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, the commander of the Russian peacekeeping forces temporarily deployed on the territory of Azerbaijan, Major General Andrei Volkov, the head of the Turkish contingent of the joint Turkish-Russian Monitoring Center, Major General Fatih Akpinar, and the head of the Russian contingent, Rear Admiral Oleg Semenov, inspected the mined area on November 23,” the statement noted. “On November 24, this territory was visited by military attachés of foreign states and foreign journalists accredited in Azerbaijan.”
“The above once again demonstrates that Armenia, contrary to the 4th point of the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020 [signed between Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war], hasn’t completely withdrawn its armed forces from Azerbaijan, and also, grossly violating the 6th point of the trilateral statement and transferring mines, abused the Lachin road for illegal military activities, committing provocations against Azerbaijan,” the statement emphasized.
“The continuation of military provocations by Armenia against Azerbaijan, the incomplete withdrawal of its forces from the territory of the country, as well as the continued deliberate laying of mines in our territories are the main threats to the large-scale restoration and construction work carried out in the post-conflict period, the civilian population in these territories, the return and peaceful living in homelands of former internally displaced persons,” the statement pointed out.
“Since the end of the second Karabakh war, 268 of our citizens have suffered from mines, of which 45 people, including three journalists, have died. Of the 45 dead, 35 are civilians,” the statement reminded.
“All this once again demonstrates that Armenia is hindering the normalization process and efforts to establish peace in the region. This activity of Armenia is a war crime, a serious violation of international humanitarian law and the obligations taken by Armenia within the framework of the trilateral statement,” concluded the statement.
