Baku has slammed Armenia over its refusal to provide maps of landmines in Azerbaijan’s formerly-occupied territories following the killing of civilians on a mine blast.
Two journalists and a local official were killed as a bus carrying them exploded on a mine planted by Armenia in the newly-liberated Kalbajar region on June 4. First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyev described Armenia’s refusal to provide maps of mined lands as a “policy of terrorism against Azerbaijan”, reminding that 140 citizens have fallen victims to landmines planted by Armenia.
She urged global condemnation of Armenia’s violation of the international law, stressing that “international nongovernmental organizations acting as champions of journalistic rights remain tight-lipped” over the recent incident.
Presidential Aide Hikmat Hajiyev said that the journalists of AZTV and Azertag Siraj Abishov and Maharram Ibrahimov were killed in mines planted by Armenia while withdrawing its forces from Kalbajar. The two journalists had been stationed in Kalbajar to document Armenia’s destruction in the region when the explosion took place. Hajiyev stressed that Armenia was violating the UN Security Council resolution 1738 that provides for the recognition of journalists working in conflict zones as civilians.
Azerbaijan’s Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva urged relevant international human rights organizations to take relevant steps within their competencies to solve the problem with minefields. She stressed the lack of any international pressure on Armenia to provide minefield maps “causes the killing of another innocent person every other day.”
Armenia has refused to share maps of landmines it planted in Azerbaijani territories it occupied for around 30 years following the war in the 1990s.
During the war in 2020, Azerbaijan liberated most of Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions that Armenia had kept as a buffer zone. Armenian landmines have killed 20 civilians and injured 29 others since the signing of the peace deal in November 2020.
