YEREVAN, June 13. /TASS/: The Armenian authorities handed over only a fraction of the maps with minefields that passed over to Baku’s control and are ready for further discussions, acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a speech broadcast on his Facebook on Sunday.
"Some opposition circles have started to claim that minefield maps have been transferred to Azerbaijan and that the return of all our prisoners-of-war could have been ensured," the acting prime minister said in the town of Yeghvard in the Kotyak province in central Armenia.
"My dear all, we have handed over the maps with minefields but this is a tiny part of the maps that we have. I want to note that back in December we exchanged such maps and these are the maps of minefields that do not divide our positions, these are the maps [of the minefields] that are located in the rear of Azerbaijan," Pashinyan said.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday that 15 Armenian servicemen had returned to Armenia in exchange for the maps of 97,000 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines laid in the Agdam district. As the ministry specified, the exchange took place on the Azerbaijani-Georgian border in the presence of Georgian representatives.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, 2020, with intense battles in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10.
Under the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides maintained the positions that they had held, seven districts, including the Agdam area, passed over to Baku’s control and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line and the Lachin corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mine clearance on the territories affected by the Karabakh conflict remains one of the basic post-war issues between Baku and Yerevan.
