“Tactically, maybe they have registered some successes,” Mnatsakanyan conceded. “But I would say that considering all the force they used, it’s rather a defeat for them.” He claims the Azerbaijanis had lost 24 tanks in the four-day battle in early April. The two sides have radically different casualty counts, and it’s impossible to independently verify the numbers. But Azerbaijani commentary has treated the campaign as a major victory after the smoldering defeat of the 1992-1994 war.
Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan has departed for Moscow to take part in the upcoming 5th International Security Conference.
Azerbaijani forces continued shelling civilian settlements and military positions of Nagorno Karabakh overnight.
The Defense Ministry of Armenia informs that 18 ceasefire violations were recorded in the northeastern part of Armenian-Azerbaijani state border on the night of April 26.
The NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns any attempts of the Azerbaijani authorities to reconsider these agreements, regarding them as an overt intention of Azerbaijan to unleash a new war, and insists on the full restoration of the ceasefire regime established in May 1994.
Given the current situation, the Ministry of Defense of the NKR advises the Azerbaijani army to respect the arrangement on ceasing the fire reached between the parties on the latter’s request and warns against turning the peaceful settlements into firing positions and making them legitimate military targets. Otherwise, the Azerbaijan’s military-political command will bear the whole responsibility for the consequences.
As reported earlier, throughout last night the adversary used almost every artillery and armored equipment of its arsenal. In addition to targeting military positions, Azerbaijan shelled Martakert and Mataghis civilian settlements.
From the very first moments of wide-scale attack by the adversary along the entire Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact, the Union of Artsakh Freedom Fighters directed its whole potential towards strengthening of the defense system of the Republic and security provision.
On April 2, 2016, Defense Army of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic downed an Azerbaijani Air Force Mi-24G attack helicopter, which was carrying out a sortie during the military aggression of Azerbaijan against the NKR. The following has been collected from the crash site of the downed helicopter.
Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Artsakh Republic) Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) has published a report on atrocities committed by Azerbaijani Armed Forces against the civilian population of the NKR and the servicemen of the NKR Defense Army during the period of 2-5April 2016. As 168.am was informed from the press service of NKR Ombudsman, the announcement reads as follows,,
