Minefield with Armenia-Made Explosives Found in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan uncovered a new minefield in the Lachin district on August 5, during the demining efforts, the Defense Ministry said.

The engineering and sapper units of the Azerbaijani Army safely collected and neutralized 102 anti-personnel mines of E-001 M type, manufactured in Armenia in 2021, the ministry said in a statement.

The minefield was discovered in a ravine in the southern part of the Kichik Ishigli mountain, the statement said.

These landmines were transported through the Lachin road, which connected Armenia with the Karabakh (Garabagh) region of Azerbaijan. Although the highway is supposed for only humanitarian purposes, following the 2020 Armenia-Azerbaijan war, the Armenian military misused it to supply military equipment, including landmines and booby-traps to its illegal units in the Karabakh region.

In November 2022, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry discovered a large minefield laid by illegal Armenian armed detachments in the Lachin district. A total of 350 PMN-E anti-personnel mines, manufactured in Armenia in 2021, were unearthed and defused, the ministry confirmed back then.

Since August 2022, nearly 3,000 landmines with an Armenian production date of 2021 have been detected and neutralized in the Kalbajar and Lachin districts along the border area with Armenia, as well as in the territory of the Karabakh Economic Region.

According to initial estimates, roughly 12 percent of the Azerbaijan’s territory is polluted by 1.5 million mines and an unknown number of unexploded ordnances. Since the end of the war in 2020, 376 Azerbaijani citizens, mostly civilians, have fallen victim to mine explosion, resulting in 69 deaths and 307 severe injuries.

The most recent explosions took place in the Gazakh district and the Lachin region, on August 2 and 3, respectively. Five people, including a State Border Service member, three sappers, and a civilian, were injured in the blasts.

Since the beginning of Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, over 3,400 people in Azerbaijan have suffered from landmine explosions, including 358 children and 38 women.

The Karabakh (Garabagh) and East Zangazur regions of Azerbaijan have been heavily mined by Armenian armed forces since the 1990s. In 1991, Armenia launched a full-blown military assault against Azerbaijan, which lasted until a ceasefire was reached in 1994. The war led to Armenia occupying 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories, resulting in over 30,000 Azerbaijanis killed and one million others expelled from those lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by Armenia.

On September 27, 2020, the decades-old conflict reignited after Armenia’s forces illegally deployed in occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During the ensuing counter-attack operations that lasted 44 days, Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, from Armenian occupation. The war ended on November 10, 2020, with a tripartite statement signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, under which Armenia returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.

Since the cessation of hostilities, the Azerbaijani government has been conducting demining operations, led by the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA), in the liberated territories to facilitate the return of internally displaced people to their homes.

Despite extensive efforts, demining operations have faced many challenges due to Armenia’s refusal to hand over accurate maps displaying the locations of landmines. Furthermore, from 2020 to 2023, Armenia laid new minefields along 500 kilometers in the territory of Azerbaijan.

According to ANAMA, in July of this year, 359 anti-personnel mines, 290 anti-tank mines, and 3,079 unexploded ordnances (UXOs) were discovered in Tartar, Aghdam, Aghdara, Lachin, Fuzuli, Shusha, Khojaly, Khankendi, Kalbajar, Khojavend, Jabrayil, Gubadli, and Zangilan. An area of 6,905 hectares was cleared of mines and UXOs.

The Defense Ministry reported that in July, more than 1,184 hectares of liberated territories were fully cleared of mines by the units and sub-units of the Engineering Troops of the Azerbaijani Army. Since 2020, engineering and sapper units have cleared 39,721 hectares of liberated territories from mines and unexploded ordnances. In total, 13,045 unexploded ordnances, 3,318 anti-tank mines, and 10,463 anti-personnel mines have been discovered and neutralized.