Azerbaijani Defense Ministry urges Russia to use correct toponyms

By Azernews

By Sabina Mammadli

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry urged the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, temporarily stationed in Azerbaijan, to correctly indicate the toponyms of settlements on the territory of the country, Azernews reports per the ministry.

The ministry also urged the Russian contingent to seriously suppress all provocative actions of illegal Armenian military formations, including the mining of territories.

In the statement, the ministry noted that Azerbaijan had officially provided the Russian Defense Ministry, the former and current command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, temporarily stationed in Azerbaijani territory, as well as the Turkish-Russian Joint Monitoring Center with a list and map of settlements of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh economic region that include names corresponding to Azerbaijani toponyms. Besides, Azerbaijan has repeatedly appealed regarding the use of these names in official information.

"However, unfortunately, the names of Azerbaijani settlements are mentioned with fictitious Armenian toponyms in the official information of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation published on the official website of the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation. Thus, in the official information of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation, dated November 24, 2022, it is stated that Azerbaijan allegedly violated the ceasefire in the direction of the settlement of “Magavu”. We inform the Russian side that the official name of the Azerbaijani settlement mentioned by them as "Magavuz" is CHARDAGLI,” the ministry stated.

Further, the statement noted that Azerbaijan’s Army units did not violate the ceasefire and did not open fire in this direction. It was underscored that the information provided to the Russian side about the recent ceasefire violations committed by illegal Armenian armed detachments and other incidents, for some reason, is not reflected in the Russian peacekeeping contingent’s official reports.

The ministry also pointed out that at its invitation, the commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent and the leadership of the Turkish-Russian Joint Monitoring Center inspected the minefield detected by the Azerbaijani Army’s engineer-sapper units in the northern direction of the Saribaba height on November 23.

“The minefield consisting of Armenian-made PMN-E anti-personnel mines was installed by illegal Armenian armed detachments. During the inspection, it was brought to the attention of the peacekeepers that 350 PMN-E anti-personnel mines produced in Armenia in 2021 were detected and neutralized. Unfortunately, the Russian peacekeeping contingent did not provide any official information in this regard,” the statement stressed.