Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan has renewed accusations against Armenia for littering formerly occupied lands with various mines, Azernews reports, citing Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry Ayxan Hajizada.

"All along the occupation, Armenia plated landmines in thousands of square kilometers of areas on Azerbaijani territories. Currently, the threat of landmines is continuing and 282 Azerbaijanis became victims of landmine explosions since the end of the 44-day patriotic war," Ayxan Hajizada said.

He said this in a comment on Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan's interview with the Armenpress news agency on January 20, 2023.

The denial in his interview of transportation of landmines, made in Armenia in 2021, and their carriage via the Lachin road and planting in Azerbaijani territories, and arguments that these landmines were allegedly removed from Armenian territories and brought to Azerbaijan by Baku do not fit into elementary military knowledge and logic, Ayxan Hajizada said.

"Azerbaijan illustrated such landmines in large numbers, and the areas, where landmines made in Armenia in 2021 were laid, to the commander of the Russian peacekeeping forces temporarily deployed in Azerbaijan, the leaders of the Turkish and Russian contingents of the Türkiye-Russia Joint Monitoring Center, as well as the military attachés and journalists of foreign countries accredited in Azerbaijan.

"These landmines were examined by military personnel and specialists. It is impossible to deny these facts. It is known that the statements about Armenia's non-production and non-export of landmines during the last decades, and the claims about this in the reports submitted by Armenia to relevant international platforms, were only false.

"For instance, during his speech at the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation on October 5, 2022, the Armenian permanent mission to the OSCE claimed that no mines are made in Armenia. Now, the Armenian foreign minister not only confirms that landmines were actually made in Armenia in 2021, but at the same time, despite previous denials, he underscored that the landmines discovered in the territories of Azerbaijan were manufactured by Armenia. In addition to what has been said, the claims of Armenia in the interview that they planted landmines only in the territory of Armenia is hypocrisy," he added.

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