Monday, December 9 2019 17:04

ArmInfo. The first, most difficult stage of collecting information on the April 2016 war  ended. On December 6, Andranik Kocharyan, chairman of the parliamentary committee to investigate the circumstances of that war, stated this from the rostrum of the parliament.

The MP proposed to extend the commission for another six months in  order to carry out the second stage of investigations. According to  him, at the first stage, on July 9, 2019, from the country's Ministry  of Defense, the committee received materials with 2684 pages, 147  test and 14 graphic documents, some of which are secret and  especially secret. A total of 21 meetings of the committee were held,  at which the testimonies of 10 military personnel were heard and  analyzed, to which a total of 415 questions were addressed. Now,  according to the lawmaker, the second stage of investigations is  beginning, within the framework of which it is planned to hear the  testimonies of 40 high-ranking officials, including the third  president of the RA Serzh Sargsyan, who at that time was the supreme  commander of the country.  To recall, the committee was set up at the  end of May of this year, and is designed to impartially and  objectively investigate the circumstances of the April 2018 war. On  the night of April 1 to 2, 2016, Azerbaijan, in flagrant violation of  the ceasefire agreements in the zone of the Karabakh conflict of May  12, 1994, launched a large-scale offensive along the contact line of  the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan using heavy  equipment and artillery. The armed conflict of three years ago was  the most ambitious resumption of hostilities around Nagorno-Karabakh,  resulting in serious casualties on both sides.  The most intense  battles were fought in the southern (Hadrut) and northeastern  (Martakert) directions of the contact line of the troops. On the  night of April 4-5, the Smerch multiple launch rocket system was used  on the southern section of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces front.   According to the oral agreement reached by the parties through the  mediation of Russia, in the morning of April 5, the ceasefire regime  of 1994 was restored. The fighting killed 110 and injured more than  120 Armenian soldiers and volunteers. There is no exact data about  the losses of the armed forces of Azerbaijan. Based on the data of  the State Department presented on May 16 in Vienna, it becomes clear  that about 270 people died on the Azerbaijani side. At the same time,  analysts at the Bellingcat international research group estimate  Baku's losses at 400-500 killed soldiers.