Landmine Free South Caucasus

Georgia's First Deputy Foreign Minister Lasha Darsalia told a regional conference held in hybrid format on 5 November that landmine contamination disrupts economies, limits the cultivation of agricultural land, displaces communities and challenges access to transportation and other infrastructure. "Since landmines clearly inhibit peace-building and stabilisation efforts we have been actively contributing to the international efforts aiming to achieve a landmine free world", he added.

The keynote speaker in the conference “Mobilising national and international efforts to make Armenia free of landmines and unexploded ordnance” was the newly appointed Director of the Centre for Humanitarian Demining and Expertise, Mr Vaghinak Sargsyan, who gave a detailed report of the ongoing efforts of the Centre to clear Armenia of landmines and other unexploded ordnance. Mr Sargsyan said that the role of the Centre was also educational and CHDE was working to increase awareness of the problem of landmines not only in affected communities, but also nation-wide. Mr Sargsyan said that CHDE was open to work in co-operation with international partners for this objective.

The conference ‘Overcoming the challenges of landmines in Azerbaijan’s quest for peace, development and reconstruction’ was held on Tuesday, 12 October 2021. The event was organised in the framework of the 2021 campaign, ‘Landmine Free South Caucasus’ by LINKS Europe, in association with the Caucasus Policy Analysis Centre, with the participation of ANAMA, the State Demining Agency of Azerbaijan.

In a complicated diplomatic exercise involving US and Georgian diplomats, Armenia and Azerbaijan on Saturday implemented "an exchange" that whilst humanitarian in nature also has deep diplomatic consequences.

The campaign, Landmine Free South Caucasus, is a collaborative effort by organisations from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia working with international partners to raise awareness of landmine issues in the region.

In the South Caucasus, the problem of landmines and other unexploded remnants of war remains a serious issue across the region. Over the last months, since the end of the 44-day Karabakh War, the problem has become more acute as efforts are made to rehabilitate territories that were until recently in the conflict zone. Most of these territories are heavily mined. Problems also remain in other areas on both the Armenian and the Azerbaijani sides of the line of contact and the international border.

The newsletter is an activity of LINKS Europe in collaboration with partners across the region.