Saving lives: Azerbaijan calls on the world to support the elimination of mine threats
On the first day of April, in the Agdara district, a 44-year-old man was injured after stepping on an anti-personnel mine near the village of Sugovushan. The incident occurred on an uncleared territory that was previously the line of contact.
At the moment, this is the latest, but unfortunately far from the only, case of mine-related incidents affecting civilians in Azerbaijan.
Today, on the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, it is especially important to highlight the constant threat posed by uncleared territories and the need to raise public awareness to prevent further tragedies.
Since the end of the Second Karabakh War, Azerbaijan has recorded 259 mine incidents. These have claimed 421 victims: 72 people have been killed, and 349 have been injured. Overall, since 1991, more than 3,400 people have fallen victim to mines, including 362 children and young people, as well as 38 women.
This tragic statistic was cited in a publication by Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration. "These are not just numbers. These are lives cut short, families destroyed, futures stolen. Demining is not just a technical process. It is a matter of justice. It is a matter of human dignity. It is a matter of the fundamental right of people to return safely to their homes," Hajiyev noted on his social media page on X.
These tragic figures directly reflect the consequences of the mine threat on the restoration of territories and the return of residents.
"Mine contamination hinders the implementation of reconstruction and restoration projects in the Karabakh and East Zangezur regions of Azerbaijan, as well as the safe and dignified return of former internally displaced persons," Hajiyev stated.
Today, Azerbaijan is one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world: "About 12% of Azerbaijan's territory has been contaminated with more than 1.5 million mines by Armenia over 30 years of occupation."
"While the world moves forward, Azerbaijan continues to live under the daily threat of mines," Hajiyev emphasized.
From 2020 to 2023, new mined areas stretching up to 500 km were created on Azerbaijani territory by the Armenian side. After the anti-terrorist operation in September 2023, more than 500,000 mines were discovered on Azerbaijani territory—a figure that vividly illustrates the scale of the mine threat.
As is well known, large-scale construction and restoration work is currently underway in the liberated territories. In Karabakh and East Zangezur, declared by the head of state as a "green energy" zone, new cities and villages are being built practically from scratch.
Among the main reasons for the growing number of mine victims are Armenia's refusal to provide accurate maps of mines buried on Azerbaijani territory, the installation of booby-trapped mines on roads, cemeteries, and other civilian sites located beyond the former line of contact.
The contamination of liberated lands with mines significantly slows down reconstruction efforts and directly affects the pace of return for hundreds of thousands of former internally displaced persons to their homeland. Most importantly, mines pose a serious threat to human life and health.
Today, Azerbaijan is mobilizing significant resources to accelerate the demining process. Territory clearance is being carried out using modern technologies and the world's best practices. At the same time, the country is almost entirely funding this work from internal resources. Despite support from foreign partners, the overall volume of international assistance remains extremely limited.
President Ilham Aliyev consistently draws attention to the scale of the mine threat, noting that demining the territories will take the country nearly 30 years and cost 25 billion USD. "The mine threat facing Azerbaijan can be compared to the horror caused by weapons of mass destruction," these words of the Azerbaijani leader particularly accurately convey the depth and urgency of the problem facing the country.
The recent mine explosion in Agdara is not just an incident; it is a symptom of a long-standing, deep-rooted problem for which Armenia has yet to bear legal or political responsibility. It once again confirms a truth well-known to Azerbaijani society: mines continue to kill and maim not because "there wasn’t enough time to clear them" or "not everything has been found," but because they were planted on a scale that can only be explained by a deliberate intent, including to slow down, complicate, and, if possible, disrupt the process of restoring life to the liberated lands.
This is precisely why there is an urgent need for international support. Not formal declarations, but real, practical, systemic assistance capable of speeding up demining. Azerbaijan, which spends enormous resources on restoring liberated territories, building roads, power grids, schools, and hospitals, is forced to simultaneously conduct work on a near-frontline scale to clear the land of mines left in violation of all possible legal norms. This burden could be fairly shared by the international community if it were truly guided by humanitarian principles. Each new explosion serves as a reminder that the path to peace is not only about diplomatic statements but also about the daily struggle against the consequences of a criminal policy that the international community has, for years, preferred to overlook.
Today, as the world marks the International Day for Mine Awareness, Baku once again calls on the global community not to stand aside and, considering the seriousness of the mine threat in Azerbaijan, to intensify support for efforts to eliminate it. The scale of the problem demands not words, but concrete, decisive actions—only such support will accelerate the restoration of liberated territories and safeguard human lives.
