Today marks second anniversary of April war

Today marks the second anniversary since the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) clashes.

The heavy fighting, traditionally dubbed “the Four-Day War”, erupted in the early hours April 2 after the Azerbaijani troops launched offensives along the Line of Contact,

The clashes continued until April 5, the largest-scale confrontations occuring in the south (Hadrut) and south-east (Martakert) of the frontline. The adversary used heavy artillery, armoured equipment and aerial vehicles to strike civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh's border villages, as well as permanent posts of military units.

The frontline subdivisions of the Nagorno-Karabakh army led defensive battles to push back the attacks, striking the adversary’s miltiary equipment and inflicting human losses.


The fighting on April 2 also claimed children's life in civilian villages. A 12-year old school-boy, Vaghinak Grigoryan, was killed in a heavy shooting in Zoravan; two more children were hospitalized.

The Azerbaijani troops continued the aggressive strikes early in the morning on April 3.

In an official statement later the same day, the country’s Ministry of Defense declared a “unilateral ceasefire”, but they kept shelling the civilian objects of Martakert. The Armenian troops eventually manged to seize back an important military post in the viccinities of the village Talish.

On April 4, Azerbaijan launched offensives from heavy gun machines (including the BM-30 Smerch  multiple rocket-launcher, and unmanned military drones).  One of the drones shelled a detachment bus from the southern region Sisian, leaving  five volunteers killed.  

In the early hours of April 5, the adversary fired southern military posts. A verbal truce was agreed later in the morning to end the military actions by the afternoon.

The Armenian armed forces lost 110 soldiers in the fighting; 121 servicemen and volunteers sustained different degrees of bodily injuries.

No specific data are available on the Azerbaijani military's damages and losses. The Ministry of Defense reported only 31 soldiers' death, but different sources claim they lost about 300 servicemen.

The Armenian troops did not retreat from their military posts during the offensives, with many servicemen fighting on to their last breath to repel the attacks.   

One of them, Robet Abajyan, died on an exploding grenade, inflicting fatal damages also on several Azerbaijani soldiers. He was posthumously honored as a hero of Artsakh.

The material losses in Azerbaijan's military too, were heavier compared to Armenia.

The Armenian troops neutralized 24 Azerbaijani tanks, one TOS-1A multiple rocket launcher, one infantry fighting vehicle, six armored vehicles, one military engineering vehicle, one BM-21 "Grad" multiple rocket launcher, two helicopters and 14 drones. Armenia lost 14 tanks, four infantry fighting vehicles (BMP) and one  ZSU-23-4 "Shilka"  radar guided anti-aircraft weapon system.