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Azerbaijani servicemen complete two-week mine clearance course in Turkey

04 February 2021 [10:18] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews


By Vafa Ismayilova 

Twenty-three Azerbaijani army soldiers have successfully completed a two-week mine search and clearance course in Izmir, Turkey, the Turkish National Defence Ministry has reported on its Twitter page.

"23 soldiers of the Azerbaijani Army successfully completed their 2-week long Specialist EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) course in ?zmir. Our brothers who returned to Azerbaijan will clear mines/IEDs in Nagorno-Karabakh where a great victory against Armenia was accomplished," the ministry tweeted.

In addition, within the framework of bilateral relations, the Ministry of National Defense of Turkey presented the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan with 10 specially trained mine detecting dogs. Preparations are being made for the trip to Turkey of the dog handlers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations to deliver these dogs to our country, as well as improve their skills in the relevant field.

Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry reported that 136 Turkish mine-clearance experts arrived in mid-December 2020 and begun training their Azerbaijani counterparts. The first group of Turkish sappers arrived in early December. The Turkish soldiers themselves are also involved in clearing Azerbaijan’s newly-liberated territories.

In one of his latest speeches, President Ilham Aliyev said that for the return of IDPs to the lands recently liberated from Armenia's occupation, those territories first need to be demined. He said that the Armenians are not giving Azerbaijan maps of minefields and that is why explosions are frequent now. 

In late January, two Azerbaijanis were wounded in Tartar and Aghdam regions. One civilian was killed and two were wounded in Fuzuli region on February 2.

On December 22, 2020, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that 6 civilians and 6 military servicemen were killed and 7 civilians and 14 military servicemen were injured in landmine blasts after the war ended on November 10, 2020.

A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10 brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/203148.html

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