GENEVA

Azerbaijan cannot yet offer a timeline for large-scale returns of internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to extreme landmine contamination across former conflict zones, the country’s presidential representative on special assignments, Elchin Amirbayov, said Thursday.

Responding to Anadolu's question, Amirbayov said that "Azerbaijan today is one of the top five countries in the world that are infected or contaminated by landmines and unexploded ordnances."

His remarks came during an Association of Accredited Correspondents at the United Nations (ACANU) media briefing in Geneva.

He added that "more than 1 million mines have been indiscriminately planted in almost 20% of the territories of Azerbaijan," and that since 2020 the country has "cleaned up only 20% of the contaminated territory."

According to the representative, authorities have detected more than 232,000 explosive devices, and only 23,000 people have been able to return since 2020, but the return of 800,000 is impeded by these mines. He noted that 13.4% of Azerbaijan's territory remains contaminated.

Since 2020, the government has spent $464 million on demining, compared to $23.9 million in foreign support. Amirbayov said, "95% of all the financial burden is on Azerbaijan's shoulders," listing the US, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Italy, the UK, and France among the current 13 donors.

During the ceasefire period, 412 Azerbaijanis have become mine victims, he noted, rising to nearly 3,400 when counting all incidents since the start of the conflict.

On returns, Amirbayov said the mine threat remains the key obstacle. "The reason why during those last five years we were able to bring back 23,000 IDPs is because (of) the remaining difficulties that we experience and the challenges of the mines."

Asked by Anadolu if Azerbaijan has a target for 2026 or the next couple of years on IDP returns, he said forecasts remain approximate, telling journalists they can "proceed from the pace that we have up until now."

He added that reconstruction is accelerating, with "several big towns and tens of villages… completely built from scratch," including smart village and smart city projects.

- Hope to sign peace agreement in 2026

Amirbayov described 2025 as "a historic year," saying Armenia and Azerbaijan have "finalized negotiations on the draft peace agreement" and hope to move from initialing the text to "the signature of it" next year.

But he insisted on resolving two outstanding issues before signing and said: "First one is the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group and associated structures because of the fact that these institutions, or these structures, they have become obsolete and dysfunctional since 2020."

Second, he said, Armenia's constitutional framework must be changed. "The legal frameworks in both countries have to be in harmony with the letter and spirit of the peace agreement, which is not, in our assessment, the case with the Armenian constitutional framework, which still contains in its preamble a reference to the decision on annexation of the Karabakh region to Armenia," he noted.

He said constitutional alignment is necessary to ensure the agreement is "sustainable and irreversible" and added: "We need to ensure that the constitutional framework of Armenia is aligned with the letter and spirit of the peace agreement."

On timing, he said, "When will that happen exactly? It’s very difficult to say. What we hear… it may happen next year, and I think that the sooner it happens, the better for both countries, because we believe that we need to seize this window of opportunity to build on already very important capital that we have gained in the last months."