Azerbaijan to heal Karabakh children's hearts

The Republican Medical Diagnosis Center of Azerbaijan with the support of the Ministry of Health has launched a social-patriotic program 'Children's hearts are beating in Karabakh'. The purpose of the action is to help children who live in difficult conditions in the frontline areas, and who are the most vulnerable category of the population.

The team of the Department of Interventional Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery led by the cardiac surgeon Rashad Mahmudov arrived at the frontline zone in the Fizuli region, where they will be operating on children aged 1-10 years, who have congenital heart defects, at the local diagnostic center for four days. The plan is to have three operations per day.

The highly skilled and experienced team, consisting of more than 25 people - cardiac surgeons, intensive care specialists, anesthesiologists and nursing staff - will give children who live in the frontline areas hope for a normal healthy life.

The specialists of the Republican Medical Diagnosis Center regularly conduct such charitable events in different regions. However, only with the support of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Health, it became possible to implement such a large-scale campaign, as 'Children's hearts are beating in Karabakh.’

Recall, on the night of April 2 all frontier positions of Azerbaijan were exposed to heavy fire from large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and guns. In addition, Azerbaijani settlements near the front line, densely populated by civilians, were shelled.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US, are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.