MP insists official number of Karabakh war victims is correct

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lawmaker from Armenia's ruling Civil Contract party, former Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan has said that the number of victims of the 44-day war is correct and that the authorities are not hiding it.

Torosyan called out what he described the "incessant manipulations and falsifications" around the matter and said in a Facebook post on Friday, February 11 that people in charge of the process are professionals.

"I became convinced that our authorities are not hiding the real numbers of our losses back in 2016, when I was the statistician of the military medical department of the Artsakh Defense Army during the April War and was involved in collecting the number of wounded," Torosyan said.

"Now, returning to the 44-day war, I would like to inform you that data from the Investigative Committee on the number of victims is based on the forensic examination of the victims' bodies and remains by the forensic service. Both state bodies have been in Stepanakert since September 27, 2020, I have personally observed that process many times."

According to Torosyan, "only someone who wants to delight the enemy with our losses can say that we had 5000, 6000 victims or more instead of the 3812 victims (and 217 missing). Only a person with a moral problem can say that we have had tens of thousands of wounded instead of about 7,500."