BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar.23

By Jani Babayeva – Trend:

Armenia is showing a non-constructive position, refusing to hand over minefield maps to Azerbaijan, Editor-in-Chief of the Russian National Defense magazine, military expert Igor Korotchenko, told Trend.

“For almost 30 years of occupation of Azerbaijani lands, Armenian troops have carried out mining of huge territories. I myself recently visited the Fuzuli and Aghdam districts and I want to say that there are warnings at every step – "Mines", "Mined". This is a huge problem, and it certainly has a humanitarian character. The mines left by the Armenian troops also blow up the civilians of Azerbaijan, who are returning to the previously occupied districts, there were cases when Russian peacekeepers were also injured,” Korotchenko noted.

According to the expert, it is necessary to increase the political and diplomatic pressure on Yerevan in order to force it to hand over the maps of minefields to Azerbaijan.

“In any case, this problem is of an international nature, it must be voiced from all platforms, from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to international forums, in order to jointly force Yerevan to fulfill the basic requirement emanating from the norms of international humanitarian law – to give the maps of minefields to Azerbaijan,” he said.

“Moscow should support the absolutely fair demands of Azerbaijan and put pressure on Yerevan so that the Armenian side will hand over the maps of the minefields,” the expert stressed.

“So far, Armenia is not doing this, even deliberately. It is a continuation of the previous unconstructive and hostile course. This policy of Armenia is unequivocally condemned by absolutely everyone,” Korotchenko added.