President Ilham Əliyev addressed the participants of an international conference on "Fighting the Mina Danger—The Road to Sustainable Development."

The EPA reports that the petition says:

"Dear Conference Participants!

I warmly welcome you to the opening of an international conference on the theme "Fighting the Mine Threat—The Road to Sustainable Development."

Today's conference is a special topic for Azerbaijan and for all mankind. As a result of Armenia's policy, Azerbaijan was among the most polluted countries in the world with mines and unexploded military equipment.

In 2020, Armenia ended its invasion of Azerbaijan. During the 44-day War, our country was victorious. As a result of Armenia's thirty-year aggression and occupation, more than 1 million Azerbaijani people were expelled from their homeland, subjected to ethnic cleansing, destroyed our villages, cities, and destroyed our people's historical, cultural, and religious heritage.

In fact, Armenia buried more than 1.5 million mines during the invasion. Since the end of the Second Civil War, 302 of our citizens have been victims of mines, 57 of whom have been killed and 245 have been seriously injured. Altogether, some 3400,587 of our citizens have been affected by mines since Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan began, 358 of whom have died. Women make up 38 of the mine victims. Armenia has also placed trapped mines on roads, cemeteries, and other civilian missions behind the former contact line, which is causing a growing number of mine victims. The threat of mine faced by Azerbaijan can be compared to the horror posed by weapons of mass destruction.

Immediately, extensive construction work was launched in our occupied territories so that our displaced brothers would soon return to their homeland voluntarily, safely, and dignifiedly. All infrastructure that was destroyed during the invasion is now being rebuilt, and new cities and villages are being built in Cambodia and Eastern Zagreb, which have been declared a "green energy" zone. The results of some of our work are already visible, and you have witnessed them while you are traveling in Azerbaijan.

Sadly, even after the conflict ended, Armenia continued to use the lachish route to lay down mines in Azerbaijan. In 2021, more than 2700,<> anti-aircraft mines were discovered in Armenia.

The mass pollution of our lands with mines not only slows the reconstruction and reconstruction work we are currently undertaking here, but also poses a serious threat to people's lives and health, preventing the rehabilitation of the rights of hundreds of thousands of displaced people who have lived for many years with the desire to return to their homeland.

Humanitarian mining is one of the main priorities of Azerbaijan's government policy. The foundation of this policy was laid by Heydər Əliyev, the International Leader of the Azerbaijani people, who celebrated the 100th anniversary. Twenty-five years ago, the National Agency for Mines Cleaning of Azerbaijan was established as a result of the strategic, prudent, and wise policies of the Great Order. ANAMA is now the principal humanitarian mining organization in our country.

No matter how big and complex the mine problem we face and the road ahead is still long, our country has worked hard to overcome it in the shortest possible time. Today, mining in Azerbaijan is carried out by using some of the most advanced and advanced technologies in the world. Continuous work is under way to strengthen our national mining potential, and our opportunities in this area have increased dramatically over the past two years.

I would like to point out that more than 90 percent of our mining activities are carried out at the expense of our country's internal resources. We are also effectively cooperating with a number of our foreign partners in this regard and are grateful for this to the countries and international organizations that have supported us. Unfortunately, when you look at the overall landscape, the volume of support from abroad is still very limited.

Given the importance of land cleared of mines to the well-being and prosperity of our people in the future and the importance of this in the broad future in terms of the overall development of our country, Azerbaijan sees mining activities in the context of a direct link to sustainable and sustainable development. Therefore, humanitarian mining in Azerbaijan is officially announced as the 18th National Sustainable Development Goal.

In addition to solving its mining problem, Azerbaijan contributes to the humanitarian mining process at the global level. Given the growing conflicts and mine disasters in the world, we have launched an initiative to establish humanitarian mining as the UN's 18th Global DIM. The Coalition Movement, which we are now chairman of, is also working on the idea of forming a Group of Co-workers in the Mines.

Today's conference is a good opportunity to discuss the calls and opportunities that stand on the global agenda for the mine problem, and for an advanced exchange of expertise in this field. I believe that the discussions to be held within the framework of the conference will contribute to the deployment of joint efforts in mining, the well-being of humanity and the promotion of new ideas and initiatives aimed at leaving future generations with a legacy of a "world cleared of mines."

I wish you all the best, and I wish you all the best."