Chief of the General Staff: If we had not learned from the April  events, the outcome of this 44-day war would have been different

ArmInfo.5 years have passed since the beginning of the four-day April war. On April 2, 2016, Azerbaijan committed a large-scale military aggression against  Artsakh. On the fifth day, the fighting was stopped on the initiative  of the Azerbaijani side with the mediation of the Russian Federation.

The Chief of the General Staff of Armenia Artak Davtyan, who is in  the military pantheon "Yerablur", in an interview with journalists,  referring to the events of 5 years ago, in particular, said: "Today  we grieve and are proud of our brave soldiers who died in the name of  the motherland while performing combat tasks. Of course, if we had  not learned from the April war, I believe that the outcome of this  44-day war would have been different."

To clarify whether the outcome of the last war was tragic for the  Armenian side, which could have been even worse, the Chief of the  General Staff stated that, first, Artsakh could have been completely  lost. "Secondly, it could have happened in 15-20 days," he said.

The Chief of the General Staff also did not comment on the words of  the deputy from the ruling "My Step" Andranik Kocharyan, who  previously claimed that the commission for the study and assessment  of the April 2016 events revealed a number of omissions made by  Davtyan during the war.  Davtyan also said that the situation in the  General Staff has been resolved, the structure is working in a  natural way.

When asked to assess the situation in the region, the Chief of the  General Staff stated that the overall situation in the region is  tense. "There is comparative stability at the borders, there are no  border incidents as such, but the general tension persists, and this  rin turn affects the border service and our everyday life," Davtyan  concluded.

Meanwhile, Armenian Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan, who also  arrived at the pantheon to participate in the ceremony of laying  flowers at the memorial to the victims, declined to comment,  including on the topic of the April war.

According to the press service of the Government of the Republic of  Armenia, on behalf of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, flowers were  laid at the graves of the heroes of the April four-day war and a  wreath at the memorial to the fallen Azatamartics.

On the night of April 2, 2016, the Azerbaijani armed forces 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 were the largest since the May 1994 ceasefire  agreement. During the fighting from April 2 to 5, all Armenian  military units, including artillery, tankers and anti-tank units,  performed well.  During the intense fighting, the detachments of the  Artsakh Defense Army destroyed 2 Azerbaijani helicopters attacking  the positions of the Armenian side, 26 tanks, as well as 14 drones, 1  BM-21 rocket and artillery unit ("Grad"), 4 IFVs and 1 engineering  unit.

During the fighting on the line of contact, the Armenian side lost 64  soldiers, 13 volunteers, 4 civilians, more than 120 people were  wounded, 9 more soldiers died after the cessation of active  hostilities, in the period up to 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 on the Armenian side, about 270 Azerbaijanis were killed. At  the same time, analysts of the international research group  Bellingcat estimate Baku's losses at 400-500 killed soldiers.