Policy

The Republic of Azerbaijan has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty due to its long-standing position that it cannot consider joining until its conflict with Armenia is settled. Azerbaijan has stated that it supports the treaty’s goals, but cannot accede “without settlement of the armed conflict, restoration of territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and having a threat of hostility resumption, even though Azerbaijan stopped planting of additional mines.”[1]

In June 2021, Azerbaijan provided a detailed statement to the Mine Ban Treaty president, which elaborated on the government’s views on joining and adhering to the treaty.[2] According to the statement, “Azerbaijan endorses the purpose and objectives of the Convention and appreciates the humanitarian spirit reflected therein.” However, it states that Azerbaijan is not a State Party “for the obvious reasons arising from our assessment that the military posture of neighbouring Armenia does not allow us to become a full-fledged party to the Convention.”

Azerbaijan attended meetings of the Ottawa Process that created the Mine Ban Treaty, but did not participate, even as an observer, in the treaty negotiations or the signing conference held in 1997. Azerbaijan has participated in some meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty, most recently attending the intersessional meetings in June 2022. It also attended the Nineteenth Meeting of States Parties held virtually in November 2021 as an observer.

Since 2005, Azerbaijan has voted in favor of an annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. Most recently, it voted in favor of Resolution 76/26 on 6 December 2021.[3]

Azerbaijan provided voluntary Article 7 transparency reports for the Mine Ban Treaty in 2008 and 2009, which provided information on mine clearance and victim assistance, but not stockpiling.

Azerbaijan is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) or the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Azerbaijan has stated on several occasions that it does not produce or export antipersonnel mines.[4] According to its June 2021 statement to the Mine Ban Treaty president, “Azerbaijan is not engaged either in transfer, transportation, or in production of anti-personnel mines.”[5]

Azerbaijan’s landmine stockpile is a legacy of the Soviet Union era, but the types and quantities it possesses are not known.

Use

Azerbaijan used antipersonnel mines in the past, but according to officials has not used mines since the end of the 1992–1994 conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.[6]

In its June 2021 statement to the Mine Ban Treaty president, Azerbaijan did not address its position on using antipersonnel mines or indicate whether its forces have used them since 1994.[7]

Azerbaijan alleges past use by Armenia, and accused Armenia of using antipersonnel mines during fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh in September–November 2020. In April 2021, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement that found that “during almost three decades of occupation of the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan, Armenia deliberately laid mines in these territories, as a result of which there had been numerous casualties among the Azerbaijani military and civilians.” Moreover, it alleged that “Armenia also deliberately planted mines on a massive scale during its forced withdrawal following the counter-offensive operation of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan.”[8]

On 27 May 2021, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces captured six Armenian soldiers that it accused of attempting to lay mines in the settlement of Yukhari Ayrim, in the Kalbajar border region.[9] Armenia denied the allegation of mine use and said that the soldiers were conducting engineering work.[10] At the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings in June 2021, Azerbaijan repeated the allegation, stating that, “Armenian colonel Gumashyan openly and hypocritically admitted the planting of landmines in Kalbajar and Lachin districts of Azerbaijan and I quote ‘My units and I have planted 17 trucks of mines near Lachin and Kalbajar, you will not be able to do anything in the areas due to mines.’”[11]

Since the end of 2020, Azerbaijan has repeatedly called on Armenia to hand over maps of areas in which it allegedly laid mines during the 2020 conflict.[12] On 12 June 2021, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that 15 detained Armenians had been handed back over to Armenia, in exchange for maps from Armenia showing the location of around 97,000 landmines laid in the Aghdam region, one of seven territories outside of Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Armenia that Azerbaijan regained control over during the 2020 fighting.[13] According to additional maps provided by Armenia, there are 92,000 landmines in the Fuzuli and Zangilan regions.[14] However, in an interview in August 2021, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev doubted the accuracy of these maps, stating that “the accuracy of the maps provided at the latest stage is only 25 percent.”[15]

In August 2022, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense claimed to have unearthed and defused 1,318 PMN-E antipersonnel mines in the Lachin region, laid by Armenian armed forces.[16] On 13 September 2022, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense issued a statement claiming that the Armenian armed forces had “mined the territories and supply roads between the positions of the Azerbaijan Army Units in different directions,” reigniting hostilities.[17] On 17 September 2022, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense released a statement, along with a video, claiming to have found 100 Armenian-made PMN-E antipersonnel mines, eight PMN-2 antipersonnel mines, and 10 antitank mines on territories and supply roads between the positions of Azerbaijani army units.[18]