Landmine Free South Caucasus

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.

The 33-year-old woman has three young children.

Regional meeting agrees to intensify efforts to raise awareness of the problem of landmines and to improve understanding of the provisions of the Ottawa Convention