Canada can play a decisive humanitarian role in landmine clearing assistance to Azerbaijan

Since November 2020 there have been a 177 landmine-related casualties in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region, including 35 civilians and 3 journalists who senselessly lost their lives to the landmines planted across the region. All of them left behind grieving families.

For three decades the picturesque mountains and towns of Karabakh have become associated with war, following Armenia’s UN-condemned occupation of the region since 1992. Formerly vibrant, culturally abundant Azerbaijani towns, villages, and cultural heritage have been razed to the ground and destroyed almost entirely. The largest investment made into the occupied region was the estimated $340 million dollars in landmines that were planted across Karabakh by the Armenian forces and government.

The 2020 Karabakh War ended with an agreement that mandated Armenia to return the occupied territories back to Azerbaijan. The 750,000 Azerbaijani IDPs who have been ethnically cleansed from their homes in the early 90s would now have a chance to return home.

Immediately following the 2020 war the Azerbaijani government began massive rebuilding and reconstruction work in the former warzone: roads, airports, "smart villages" with renewable energy, foreign investment into agriculture, and housing for the former IDPs. Although reconstruction and revival of the land has begun, the landmines continue to kill innocent civilians, journalists and those involved in rebuilding the land.

In December 2021 we proudly announced that as a result of our advocacy work, Mine Action Canada and Members of Parliament faciliated an agreement between Mines Advisory Group and Azerbaijan's ANAMA, to send supervisory support for the mine clearance in Karabakh.

We continue to urge Canada's to send much-needed humanitarian support and expertise to the region, in order to facilitatte the return of more than half a million internally displaced persons to their homes.