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Azerbaijan
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Republic of Azerbaijan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Government officials have been more open to discussing the convention in the past two years, but have stated that Azerbaijan will not join the convention until the conflict with Armenia is settled, including the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In August 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said that the government “supports” the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but cannot join “at this stage” because of the “ongoing occupation” of Nagorno-Karabakh and “seven areas adjoining regions” of Azerbaijan by Armenia.[1]
In November 2010, the director of the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA), said that the Armenia-continued occupation of parts of Azerbaijan as well as Nagorno-Karabakh means it is not possible for Azerbaijan to join the convention at this time.[2]
Azerbaijan participated in some of the Oslo Process meetings that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[3] It has not attended any regional or international meetings held on cluster munitions since 2008.
On 2 August 2010, the Azerbaijan Campaign to Ban Landmines (AzCBL) convened a roundtable event in Baku to celebrate the Convention on Cluster Munitions’ entry into force, which included a short film screening and dissemination of the text of the convention as translated by the campaign into Azerbaijani.[4]
Azerbaijan is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty or the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Azerbaijan is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions. It inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union. Jane’s Information Group reports that RBK-250, RBK-250/275, and RBK-500 cluster bombs are in service with the country’s air force.[5] RBK-250 bombs with PTAB submunitions were among the abandoned Soviet-era ammunition stockpiles located near the village of Saloglu in the northwestern part of the country.[6] Azerbaijan also possesses Grad 122mm and Smerch 300mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[7]
Cluster Munition Remnants
Azerbaijan is affected by cluster munition remnants. In 2007, the Azerbaijan Campaign to Ban Landmines conducted a survey of cluster munition contamination in the non-occupied border regions of Azerbaijan. It concluded that cluster munitions had been used in Aghdam, Aghdara, and Fizuli districts/regions.[8]
Significant contamination from cluster munition remnants has also been identified in Nagorno-Karabakh (see the profile for Nagorno-Karabakh).[9] In 2006 and 2007, cluster munition remnants were found in and around warehouses at a former Soviet ammunition storage area (ASA) located at Saloglu in Agstafa district. None have since been encountered (see below section, Clearance of cluster munition contaminated area).
Clearance of cluster munition contaminated area
No cluster munition remnants were cleared in 2010.[10] In 2006, at Saloglu, 16 “9M 27 K” cluster munition rockets were destroyed (each rocket has 24 submunitions). In 2007, 181 “Z-O-13” cluster munition artillery shells were destroyed (each item has eight submunitions). In 2008–2010, no cluster munition remnants were found at Saloglu.[11]
[1] Statement by Elchin Huseynli, Arms Control Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Baku, 2 August 2010. The AzCBL organized this roundtable meeting on the mine and cluster munitions problem in Azerbaijan and globally; “Azerbaijan not join the UN Convention on the prohibition of cluster munitions,” Zerkalo (newspaper) www.zerkalo.az, 3 August 2010; and letter No. 115/10/L from Amb. Murad N. Najafbayli, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the UN in Geneva, to the CMC, 10 May 2010.
[2] Interview with Nazim Ismayilov, Director, ANAMA, Baku, 18 November 2010.
[3] For details on Azerbaijan’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 188.
[4] Participants included government officials, diplomatic representatives, ICRC, UNDP, NGO members, mine survivors and local media. CMC, “Entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions Report: 1 August 2010,” November 2010, p. 12.
[5] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 835.
[6] Human Rights Watch visit to Saloglu, May 2005.
[7] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 88; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007–2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).
[8] Azerbaijan Campaign to Ban Landmines, “Information Bulletin,” January 2008.
[9] Interview with Nazim Ismayilov, Director, ANAMA, Baku, 2 April 2010; see also Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice, Mines Action Canada, May 2009, p. 188.
[10] Email from Tural Mammadzada, Operations Officer, ANAMA, 6 May 2011.
[11] ANAMA, “Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action 2010,” 2009, p. 10; and email from Tural Mammadzada, ANAMA, 6 May 2011.
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