April 8, 2016 - 19:58 AMT
Karabakh shouldn't cede even an inch of land to Azerbaijan: military

Surrendering even a small piece of Karabakh land to Azerbaijan is inadmissible, a hero of Artsakh war, Major General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan (Komandos) said Friday, April 8.

"Karabakh mustn't cede even an inch of land to Azerbaijan," the military official said. "If we give them the land, we'll be helping them suffocate us."

"Although Karabakh has suffered major losses since the escalation on April 2, in the event of unleashing large-scale military operations Azerbaijan will lose much more than it did during the last days," he said.

"30-40% of Azerbaijan's territory can be destroyed with just several missiles."

The parties to the Karabakh conflict agreed on a bilateral ceasefire along the contact line which came into force at midday, April 5.

On the night of April 1-2, Azerbaijani armed forces initiated overt offensive operations in the southern, southeastern and northeastern directions of the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh.

As many as 44 Karabakh servicemen were killed and 122 were wounded in the course of military operations.

As of April 5, the Azerbaijani side has lost 26 tanks and 4 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as 1 BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher, 1 engineering vehicle, 2 military helicopters and 14 unmanned aerial vehicles. The Azerbaijani side has admitted the loss of 31 fighters, 1 helicopter and 1 unmanned drones, whereas the Armenian side's photo and video materials show dozens of killed Azerbaijani troops, 1 helicopter and 3 UAVs.

14 Karabakh tanks have been neutralized since April 2.

Read also: Overview of Karabakh escalation: Interactive map