Armenia Defense Minister didn’t need to hold phone talks with his Russian counterpart?
On July 18, Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan Zakir Hasanov held phone talks with Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergey Shoygu amid the operations that are being carried out on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border these past few days.
However, Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Davit Tonoyan has not held any phone talks with any military or defense official of the Russian Federation these past few days, particularly with Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu.
The Armenian side has even declared a few times that there is no need to address the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) or the Armenian-Russian joint military group for assistance.
The fact that Davit Tonoyan has not held phone talks with his Russian counterpart goes to show that the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia are self-sufficient and are able to complete their tasks independently. Apparently, the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan strongly felt the need to hold phone talks with Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergey Shoygu (there are facts that attests to this below) when it has Turkey’s support.
On July 12, the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan organized a provocation in the direction of the Armenian military positions, and this was followed by the punitive actions of the Armenian side and actions for improvement of Armenian military positions. During this period, Azerbaijan suffered the loss of the chief of staff of its third army corps, Major-General Polad Hashimov, as well as chief of artillery of the third army corps, Colonel Ilgar Mirzayev. Afterwards, Azerbaijan launched an attack to seize the “Fearless” border position of the Armed Forces of Armenia, using 100 militants of the “Yashma” special brigade, which the Armenian side thwarted, and 25-50% of the “glorious” Azerbaijani brigade was destroyed.
There is still no total calculation of the number of human casualties of the Azerbaijani side, but there are about 2 dozens of human casualties. Right from the start, Azerbaijan had confirmed 12 victims, and this was followed by the destruction of the militants of the “Yashma” special brigade. In addition, Azerbaijan suffered casualties in terms of military equipment (on ground and aerial). In particular, the air force units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia struck 14 Azerbaijani unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Azerbaijan’s armored vehicles have also been struck.
Mariam Petrosyan
