Mine clearance continues in liberated Jojug Marjanli

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action, ANAMA, continues mine clearing operations in the liberated Jojug Marjanli village.

A team of ANAMA carried out cleaning operation in 14,400 square meters of the village on February 15. No unexploded ordnance was found during the operation.

Since the beginning of the operations on demining in Jojug Marjanli, ANAMA cleared a territory of 85,466 square meters, 19 houses and defused five units of unexploded ordnance.

The village was fully liberated from the Armenian occupation in April 2016, when Azerbaijani Armed Forces prevented an Armenian provocation on the contact line. Following that, the Azerbaijani side established a full control over the village and Azerbaijani deminers began to demine the village as civilians will return to their homes.

In late January, President Ilham Aliyev ordered to restore Jojug Marjanli village in Jabrayil region of Azerbaijan. Under the order, 4 million manats were allocated from the President`s 2017 Contingency Fund to the State Committee on Deals of Refugees and IDPs for the construction of 50 private houses, a school building and relevant infrastructure at the first stage.

Moreover, President Aliyev signed an order on additional measures to construct the road leading to the liberated Jojug Marjanli village and allocated 4.3 million manats from the state budget for the construction of 9 km long highway in the village.

 Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov announced on February 13 that the construction work will soon be launched in the village.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.