Bodies of killed Karabakh soldiers marauded, abused: Deputy Minister

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia’s First Deputy Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan on Monday, April 11 met with the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ (ICRC) Armenia mission Caroline Douilliez.

At the meeting, the parties discussed the search and recovery of the bodies of soldiers, killed in the course of the Azerbaijani aggression unleashed along the entire line of contact on April 2-5.

In this context, the Deputy Minister thanked the ICRC mission head for mediating, along with the OSCE Mission, the exchange of bodies with the Azerbaijani side.

Bodies of 18 killed Karabakh servicemen were handed over to the Armenian side.

According to Tonoyan, the bodies of all returned soldiers were pillaged and abused, in grave violation of the international humanitarian law, which constitutes a serious crime under the criminal law of any legitimate state.

As Tonoyan noted, the Armenian side will seek to ensure that Azerbaijan’s behavior is condemned in strongest terms by the international community and relevant agencies.

The parties to the Karabakh conflict agreed on a bilateral cessation of fire along the contact line which came into force at midday, April 5.

Prior to that, on the night of April 1-2, Azerbaijani armed forces initiated overt offensive operations in the southern, southeastern and northeastern directions of the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh.

As many as 64 Armenian solders were killed, 122 more were wounded.

As of April 5, the Azerbaijani side has lost 26 tanks and 4 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as 1 BM-21 Grad multipl e rocket launcher, 1 engineering vehicle, 2 military helicopters and 14 unmanned aerial vehicles. The Azerbaijani side has admitted the loss of 31 fighters, 1 helicopter and 1 unmanned drone, whereas the Armenian side's photo and video materials show dozens of killed Azerbaijani troops, 1 helicopter and 3 UAVs. Opposition media outlets, however, reported on the death of 95 Azerbaijani soldiers, stating that 39 more have been wounded. According to Karabakh authorities, 300 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in clashes.

14 Karabakh tanks have been neutralized since April 2.