The post-war victims of the second Karabakh war
Despite the fact that hostilities in Karabakh ended on November 10, both sides of the conflict continue to suffer casualties. All of them lost their lives due to mines laid practically throughout the entire territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions.
Sapper triggers mine
On November 14, 2020, a 41-year-old sapper, Asif Khudiyev, was caught in an explosion by a mine in the Fizuli region, taken under the control of the Azerbaijani army a month earlier.
The employee of the National Agency for Neutralization of Territories of Azerbaijan (ANAMA) lost one leg as a result of the accident.
One brother killed, one injured after stepping on explosive device
On the same day, November 14, two brothers, refugees from the Fizuli region, who came to see their homeland after 26 years, were blown up by a mine.
According to the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan, 36-year-old Yasin Akhmedov died as a result of the incident. His brother, Asif Akhmedov, born in 1989, was seriously wounded.
Azerbaijani army loses a colonel
On November 23, 2020, on the territory of the Terter region, while searching for the bodies of those killed during the war, a mine was blown up and a colonel of the Azerbaijani army Babek Semidli was killed.
Together with the officer, an officer of the Russian peacekeeping mission and four employees of the Emergencies Ministry of Nagorno-Karabakh were at the scene. All of them were injured.
The Russian serviceman was taken to one of the hospitals in Baku for treatment.
Entire family killed
On November 28, in the territory of Fizuli region, a Toyota Land Cruiser was blown up by a mine planted on the road. Four members of the same family were killed.
The three men and a woman had come to see their homes, from where they had to leave back in 1994.
The deceased Zibeyda Adilzade (Hajiyeva) was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Qayidish, a paper put out by the executive power of the Fizuli region.
Two killed in the Armenian army
On December 1, 2020, two Armenian servicemen were killed while on duty in one of the military units in Karabakh.
The explosion that was triggered during the removal of ammunition killed Zhirayr Vachikovich Matevosyan and Gegham Meruzhanovich Hovhannisya (both born in 2001).
Authorities issued a warning
After these incidents, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan issued a joint statement.
In the document, law enforcement agencies warned residents of the country against traveling to the liberated territories without special permission.
According to the chief of the ANAMA operational headquarters Idris Ismailov, the neutralization of mines in the territories taken or given to Azerbaijan will be possible only within the next three to five years.
And they intend to clear the entire territory of Karabakh within 10-13 years.
Since the beginning of the sappers’ work in the liberated territories, the sappers have defused 750 unexploded ordnances, 4500 anti-personnel mines and about 2,000 anti-tank mines.
According to Ismailov, the first residents of settlements in these territories can move here in at least three years.
