Most likely, there are no maps of minefields

Baku/11.06.21/Turan: In the Turan news agency program "Difficult question", political analyst Farhad Mehdiyev shared his views on steps Azerbaijan can take to clear its territory of mines".

In his words, it is not easy to make Armenia submit maps of the mined territories to Azerbaijan. The problem is that Azerbaijan and Armenia have not concluded a peace agreement.

In spite of the fact that the trilateral statement signed on November 10 by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin provides  the unblocking of the transport agreement between Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (paragraph 9), exchange of prisoners of war (paragraph 8), it is not a peace treaty but a ceasefire agreement. And it does not mention the transfer of a map of mined territories to Azerbaijan.

Mehdiyev also noted that the Convention on "Inhumane" weapons (Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons that May Be Deemed to Cause Excessive Damage or Have Indiscriminate Effects (adopted at the UN Conference in Geneva on 10.10.1980, approved by the UN General Assembly on 12.12.1980, opened for signing on 10.04.1981, entered into force on 01.12.1983 – Ed.) prohibits the installation of mines in places where civilians live, obliges the party that has laid mines to have maps of mined territories and indicate mined places. All these requirements were not met by Armenia. There is also the Ottawa Treaty or Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines (Treaty on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. Signed on 03.12.97, entered into force on 01.03.99-Ed.) which provides for the complete destruction of all stocks of non-directed anti-personnel mines and the elimination of minefields.

But the question is that Armenia has not signed these conventions. Therefore, from a formal point of view, it is impossible to demand from Armenia to comply with them. There is no ratification, and hence, there is no responsibility.

However, - the political scientist noted, - paragraph 2 of the Convention of the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) on human rights, says about the need to respect the right to life of civilians. Although the ECHR has not yet made any demands to Armenia to respect this right, it is possible in the future.

"Our position here is quite strong, since paragraph 2 imposes a positive obligation on states – the right to life. Therefore, they (Armenians-approx . Ed.) are obliged to provide cards, " Mehdiyev said.

At the same time, he was skeptical about the probability of Armenia' having maps of minefields in the First Karabakh War.

"They probably don't exist. Also, Armenians could say that during the Second Karabakh War they were not up to creating maps of minefields, " Mehdiyev said.