ArmInfo. The third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, in a short video entitled "Let's be honest: Serzh Sargsyan on the April war" told why he was silent about the events of April 2016 for a long time.
So, when asked why he was silent before the hearings in the parliamentary commission on the April events, Sargsyan said in particular: "I was silent for a long time, because I did not want to further aggravate the situation in our country, deepening polarization, dividing our society to the end," - said the third RA President.
Clarifying what prevented him from speaking, Sargsyan stated that 2018 was a very emotional year, and chaos and aggression increased day by day, delighting only enemies.
"In this emotional environment, part of our society was simply not ready to listen to the simple truth," he said, adding that it took time for everyone to understand the situation on their own. At the same time, he assured that he would talk about this in more detail.
To recall, on the night of April 2, 2016, the armed forces of Azerbaijan committed a large-scale military aggression against Artsakh. The war was accompanied by war crimes, gross violations of the laws and customs of war, as well as the norms of international humanitarian law. The April hostilities have become the largest since the May 1994 ceasefire agreement. During the hostilities from 2 to 5 April, all Armenian military units, including artillerymen, tankmen and anti-tank units, showed themselves excellently. During the intense fighting, the units of the Artsakh Defense Army destroyed 2 Azerbaijani helicopters that attacked the positions of the Armenian side, 26 tanks, as well as 14 drones, 1 BM-21 (Grad) rocket and artillery installation, 4 IFVs and 1 engineer installation.
During the hostilities on the Line of Contact, the Armenian side lost 64 servicemen, 13 volunteers, 4 civilians, more than 120 people were wounded, 9 more servicemen died after the cessation of active hostilities, in the period until April 13, several died later in hospitals. Based on the data of the State Department, presented on May 16 in Vienna in the same year, it becomes clear that in addition to 81 losses from the Armenian side, about 270 Azerbaijanis died. At the same time, analysts of the international research group Bellingcat estimate Baku's losses at 400-500 killed soldiers.
After the Velvet Revolution, a commission was established in the Armenian parliament to investigate the circumstances of the April 2016 war.
In June this year, the commission completed its activities, and intends to summarize all the material in September to submit a report on the work done.