19:19, 6 April, 2021
YEREVAN, APRIL 6, ARMENPRESS. Press Secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia Anna Naghdalyan answered to the question of journalists about the Azerbaijani accusations of the Armenian side of not providing maps of minefields of the territories fallen under the Azerbaijani control, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia.
Question: The Azerbaijani authorities in their recent statements accused the Armenian side of not providing maps of minefields of the territories fallen under the Azerbaijani control. How would you comment on those statements?
Answer: As you know, the Azerbaijani authorities are blatantly violating the international humanitarian law and their commitments under the provisions of the November 9 statement to repatriate Armenian prisoners of war and civilians who are still being held in captivity. In fact, in response to the pressure of the international community on this issue, the Azerbaijani side is trying to create grounds for justifying its non-compliance by putting forward a fake agenda of minefield maps. The fact that the Azerbaijani officials are raising this issue exclusively in the public field is a case in point.
Throughout the conflict, the Azerbaijani side didn’t make any proposal to cooperate on demining issues; moreover, it made every effort to disrupt the implementation of demining programs in Armenia and Artsakh. It is enough to recall that Azerbaijan in 2016 blocked the extension of the mandate of the OSCE Office in Yerevan under the pretext of the latter’s support to demining programmes, which led to the closing of the OSCE field mission in Armenia.
We call on the Azerbaijani authorities to refrain from attempts to mislead the international community and to undertake tangible steps to fulfill its commitments undertaken by the November 9 trilateral statement and under the international humanitarian law, which entails the immediate, unconditional release of all prisoners of war, captured civilians and their repatriation.