Armenia landmines are the hurdle to bring peace in Azerbaijan

The current President of the United States hopes for peace in the South Caucasus. But unfortunately, peace is the dream for many people living in Azerbaijan. This is because landmines are still scattered across the Karabakh region.

The special representative of the President of Azerbaijan Vahijd Hajiyev,  discussed details about complexities at the 3rd International Conference. According to him, landmines are the major reason that damage the environment in Karabakh. According to him, it also stopped the growth of tourism, farming and many other industries in the area. 

Hikmet Aliyev, a top advisor to Azerbaijan’s president, made an important point when he spoke on behalf of President Ilham Aliyev. According to him, landmines damage the soil and also badly impact the climate. Azerbaijan is still suffering from the landmines problems. There are more than 1.5 million of them scattered around, and many unexploded bombs too. 

These landmines are also the major cause of death in our country. The number of people who died during the first  Karabakh War was 3000. This is largely because the Armenians haven’t given us accurate maps of where these mines are located.

The deputy chairman of ANAMA (Azerbaijan’s anti-land mine agency), Samir Poladov believes that Karabakh is surrounded by the issue of landmines. It remains a big problem because  the region is heavily mined. He mentioned that this has stalled the government’s reconstruction plans. Just a year ago, Zangilan was mostly barren. Now, Zangilan boasts a hotel, convention center, school, and a small green village. He also highlights that Zangilan is an exception. While due to landmines many other places of the Karabakh still can not be developed. 

According to Poladav, bringing life back to this region is our main priority. Dealing with the landmines takes several years because there are still many mines.The main hurdle in our action is that we don’t have correct information about where those minefields are. We get limited information from the Armenian side, also this data is not trustworthy. We’ve even discovered land mines in places where we didn’t think they would be.

She further added, “Every square kilometer in Karabakh is potentially dangerous. We have no choice but take that into consideration due to the terrible accidents that have occurred over the past three years.”

A region that is filled with toxic landmines

According to Emil Hasanov, deputy chairman of the Public Council under ANAMA, Azerbaijan plays an important role. It is positioned between East and West. According to him, every little thing happening in this country affects the other nations also. Such as environmental damage impacting the whole region. Since the Soviet Union collapsed, Azerbaijan has been influential in the South Caucasus, and its impacts will last for the next 50 or 60 years. Hasanov also feels the disasters due to  past Balkan wars, and he thinks Karabakh will be in a similar situation, even with a peace agreement with Armenia.

The question arises why Azerbaijan is involved in launching a  counter-terror operation. The reason behind it is because Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian separatist currently in a Baku prison, financed Armenian armed groups. These groups were behind two terror attacks where they planted landmines on roads.  Many employees of Azerbaijan Interior Ministry lost their lives in one of these attacks: Jamalzade Asim (30), Shirinov Ramil (37), Mahmudov Seymur (33), and Zamanov Khazar (26). 

Not all the landmines in Karabakh are due to the time when Armenia controlled the region against UN Security Council resolutions.Some were placed during the time of Ruben Vardanyan, one of the separatist leaders. These landmines are now the hurdle in rebuilding the region. This is the main reason that Azerbaijan is hesitant to release Vardanyan from prison.

In order to bring peace, it is important for Armenia to show where all the landmines are. Otherwise peace is impossible here. Maps can help to fix the problems soon. This makes it tough to make peace between the two countries, even if Armenia’s prime minister is ready to give up all his claims to land in Karabakh.