Immediate threat: how Azerbaijan is dealing with “legacy” of occupation

Unfortunately, mines and unexploded ordnance continue to threaten the lives and safety of people in many parts of the world. Even long after the end of conflicts, explosives continue to claim lives, injure civilians, damage infrastructure, and slow down reconstruction projects. In this regard, humanitarian demining is a mandatory condition for ensuring the safety of populated areas.

President Ilham Aliyev said this in his address to the participants of the IV International Conference on Mine Action.

This time, the forum on demining, which has become traditional, was devoted to the topic “Humanitarian demining for the reconstruction of cities: establishing standards of best practices to ensure the safety of populated areas.”

At the current stage, when the reconstruction process in Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur has entered the phase of accelerated implementation, and tens of thousands of people have already returned to the liberated lands, the issue of ensuring the safety of rebuilt cities and villages is becoming particularly relevant. The previous demining conference was held in May 2024 and focused on the impact of the mine threat on the environment. It was the year of COP29, and environmental issues permeated the entire agenda, being addressed in one way or another at all levels. And it was very important to talk about the mine threat in this context in order to draw the attention of the global community to it. Mine explosions cause enormous damage to the environment. For example, the plastic waste generated by the explosions has a negative impact on soil structure, leading to environmental consequences. And the prolonged presence of mines in the ground causes harmful chemical reactions that lead to erosion and destruction of soils.

However, the topic of human safety has never lost its relevance and remains in the first place. The success of the Great Return program also depends on whether new settlements, roads, and other infrastructure are safe for human life. As President Ilham Aliyev said in his address, no city, no village, or settlement can be fully restored, no school or hospital can operate safely, no family can return with dignity, and no economic activity can develop sustainably if the land is not cleared of mines and explosive remnants of war. Therefore, humanitarian demining lies at the very core of the restoration of cities and the creation of safe settlements, the President emphasized.

The restoration of the liberated territories began with demining. The sappers were the first to work on them, and only later did the builders and power engineers come. Unfortunately, it is impossible to talk about a quick resolution of the problem. The Armenian occupation has made Azerbaijan one of the most mine?contaminated countries in the world. Mining is one of the ways of waging war, but even this process has its own rules. Not every country that has suffered from occupation and conflicts ends up with such a “legacy”. Azerbaijan was “lucky” to have an opponent who did not bother to observe international law and the rules of war.

13 percent of the mined territories is a huge figure. It is estimated that there may be about 1.5 million mines on these lands, as well as a significant, yet unspecified, number of other explosive devices. Moreover, there is virtually no information about the exact location of the minefields. A few years ago, under pressure from external actors, the Armenian side provided forms, but the maps of the minefields contained in them corresponded to reality only to a quarter. In the case of international pressure on Armenia to provide real information about the location of the minefields, the work would have gone faster and there would not have been so many post-war casualties. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has repeatedly appealed to the international community with such an appeal. But Armenia has never been seriously pressured by anyone.  

Two years ago, the Armenian Foreign Ministry announced that Armenia was ready to provide some new maps of minefields based on a survey of militants who had left Karabakh. Azerbaijani experts were horrified by such a proposal. Military experts emphasized that maps of minefields and related documents are drawn up on the spot, during the mining operations. Each mine laid in this territory is topographically linked to the terrain. And what Yerevan proposed is a waste of time and an attempt at blackmail.

A particular problem is created by the fact that Armenians mined not only the former line of contact, not only the approaches to combat positions and roads. Farmland, pastures, courtyards, cemeteries, and children's toys were mined. Before leaving Karabakh, the separatists left death in houses, schools, and kindergartens. This greatly complicated the work of sappers. People continue to be killed by Armenian mines to this day. Because any step away from the territory that has been checked by specialists can end in tragedy.

Since the end of the Patriotic War in 2020, 437 citizens of Azerbaijan have become victims of accidents related to mines and explosive devices, including civilians, military personnel, sappers, journalists, and those involved in reconstruction work. As a result of these incidents, 73 people were killed and 364 people sustained serious injuries. Overall, since the beginning of Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan, more than 1,500 of our citizens have been injured by mines. Among them are children, women and other civilians whose lives have been tragically changed by this hidden threat," the President's address says.

The Armenian side has widely used antipersonnel mines and booby traps prohibited by international law. During the Second Karabakh War, the vile enemy even mined the bodies of dead Azerbaijani soldiers.

The situation faced by the Azerbaijani side in Lachin, which was liberated in August 2022, is particularly indicative in this regard. A large number of PMN?E anti?personnel mines were found in the area. Moreover, they were very fresh — manufactured in 2021 and produced in Armenia. Although the Armenian side denied that such mines were produced in the country, the facts spoke otherwise. A large number of fresh anti?personnel mines were also found in the liberated Kalbajar.By using anti?personnel mines, the Armenian armed forces violated international requirements. The Ottawa Convention (treaty) of December 3, 1997, obliges all countries never and under no circumstances to use anti?personnel mines. This obligation applies to all situations of armed conflict. The treaty provides for the complete destruction of all stockpiles of anti?personnel mines of non?directed action and the elimination of minefields.

Protocol II (Protocol on the Prohibition or Restriction of the Use of Mines, Booby?Traps and Other Devices) to the 1980 Geneva Convention requires the registration and public disclosure of information about the location of mines and minefields.

As we can see, Armenia did not adhere to any rules. In Yerevan, this has always been explained by the fact that the country has not joined these conventions. Well, that is true. And it is even less worth talking about the principles of humanity with such an adversary.

Despite the fact that Azerbaijan has been raising the issue at the international level for six years now, it continues to address it largely on its own. In early August, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, during a meeting with the OSCE Chairperson?in?Office, Ignazio Cassis, called on the organization to take a more active part in the country’s demining process and in the implementation of specific projects.

Although Azerbaijan has the necessary specialists and funds, international support is needed because the scale of the problem is enormous. It hinders positive processes and impedes the faster return of former internally displaced persons to their lands. Foreign commentators often point out with a smirk that so many years have passed since the war, yet Karabakh is still not inhabited by Azerbaijanis. They attribute this to the alleged unwillingness of citizens to return to their native lands. And no one wants to talk about the real obstacle — the mine threat left by the Armenians. If this obstacle did not exist, Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur would already have been rebuilt and settled. It should be emphasized that even with such a large?scale problem, work is progressing successfully, although any other country would still be in ruins.  

As President Ilham Aliyev noted in his address to the conference participants, large?scale demining operations are being carried out in the liberated territories. To date, more than 298,000 hectares of land have been demined, and 260,147 mines and unexploded ordnance have been detected and neutralized. Azerbaijan is implementing advanced technologies, innovative approaches and modern management systems to increase the speed, safety and efficiency of demining.

“Demining work in Azerbaijan is directly linked to broader national priorities. It contributes to restoration, safe return, the revival of agriculture, infrastructure development, environmental protection, social reintegration, and economic recovery. It also contributes to the implementation of the ‘National Priorities for Socio?Economic Development: Azerbaijan?2030’, in particular the ‘Great Return’ priority to the liberated territories,” the head of state said.

Over the post?war years, Azerbaijan has accumulated significant experience in combating the mine threat. Issues related to the safety and resilience of populated areas, as well as demining, occupied a central place in global discussions during the 13th session of the World Urban Forum, which was successfully held in Baku. Azerbaijan had something to say, something to share.

Unfortunately, the mine threat will remain a major problem for a long time in the implementation of urban development projects in 20 percent of the country’s territories liberated from occupation. 13 percent of these territories are covered with mines. It is impossible to ignore this reality. However, Azerbaijan is moving forward in defiance of all its enemies and is doing, almost single?handedly, what many countries would not be able to accomplish in such a situation.