Karabakh says lost 500ha of land during Four-Day War last year

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan’s minister of Defense Zakir Hasanov gave an interview to RIA Novosti on Thursday, July 13, during which he weighed in on the Four-Day War in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) in April, 2016. The next day, Artsakh Defense Army spokesman Senor Hasratyan responded to Hasanov’s remarks, publishing an excerpt from his monograph “Four-Day April War.”

Azerbaijan on April 2 launched a large-scale military offensive against Karabakh which killed hundreds on both sides. Top Armenian and Azerbaijani defense officials reached an agreement on the cessation of hostilities on April 5 in Moscow.

PanARMENIAN.Net has singled out the most important parts of both materials.

1. According to the Azerbaijani minister, 15-20% of the country’s army participated in the April war last year. Based on the information about number of servicemen in the Azerbaijani Armed Forces - which are available in open sources - 20,000 soldiers participated in the offensive (the figure is approximate because of differing data on the number of servicemen and the lack of specifics in Hasanov's statement, who did not explain whether the figure refered to ground troops alone or the total number of servicemen, including border guards, etc. - Ed.).

2. Hasratyan said that 30,000 shells were fired towards the Armenian positions of Karabakh in the four days of the short war. Among other weapons, Azerbaijani troops employed Smerch, Kasirga, Uragan, Gradlar, TOS-1A multiple rocket launchers, Israeli reconnaissance drones, Spike anti-tank guided missiles.

Between April 5 and 30, Azerbaijani armed units fired around 104,000 shots, including 4500 from artillery, tanks, BMPs and other large-caliber weapons.

3. In the southern direction, Azerbaijan took six Karabakh Defense Army positions in a territory with a depth of 450m and width of 1500m (a total of 67.5 hectares). In the northern (Talish) direction, the Armenian side lost 13 combat positions, and the Azerbaijani side took possession of a territory with a depth of 1 km and a width of 4,300 m (430 ha).

In total, the Armenian side lost 500 hectares of land.

Earlier, Karabakh’s losses were estimated at 800 hectares.