Armenian Defense Ministry refutes reports of Azerbaijani media about new casualties from Armenian side
Azerbaijani, Private soldier Farid Agayev Rufat oglu was killed at the front line, reports the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan. The report is posted on the official website of the Ministry. As it is noted in the report, the soldier of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces died on February 5 as a result of severe wounds received during the shootout. Azerbaijani Defense Ministry did not specify where exactly the soldiers died.
At the same time, the Azerbaijani side decided to extend another disinformation about the losses of the Armenian side. Thus, the Azerbaijani news agency "APA", referring to "the Armenian media," reports that allegedly last night two soldiers of the Armed Forces of Armenia were killed, at the same time it claims that the name of the second soldier is not reported. However, the press service of Artsakh Defense Army has officially confirmed the death of one of the soldiers on the line of duty - Shakespeare Hakobyan (born in 1990). There are no reports of the second unconfirmed combat losses from the Armenian side in the Armenian media.
In order to clarify the situation Panorama.am turned to the press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan. "No wonder, another disinformation extended by Azerbaijan. The Armenian side has given one combat loss which the official website of the NKR Defense Army had published. We are not tended to hide information about our losses from our society," Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.
According to Azerbaijani media, at night the Armenian troops had allegedly "opened fire at direction of the residents of the Azerbaijani border-close village of Alibeyli at Tovuz region, as a result of which 32-year-old resident of the village was injured, and one of the houses was sat on fire."
Responding to Panorama.am request on this issue, the spokesman for the Armenian Defense Minister Artsrun Hovhannisyan noted that the Armenian army has never been at war with the civilians and is not at war today as well. "The Armenian side reported that the frontier units of the NKR had to resort to a proportionate responsive action with the Azerbaijani Armed Forces just yesterday, as the Azerbaijani armed forces intensively violate the ceasefire, because of which our soldiers was killed. However, we do not shoot on Azerbaijani villages. Azerbaijani side is disinforming the public," said Artsrun Hovhannisyan.
According to the Armenian media, last night, as a result of intensive fire from the Azerbaijani inhabitant of Armenian border-close village Nerkin Karmiraghbyur of Tavush region Vanik Ghoukassian who is 60-year-old was killed. According to the mayor of the Armenian border-close village of Movses Ararat Avalyan, the Azerbaijani units fired at the village, damaged the pipeline, church and 7 houses.
According to the press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry the day before the Azerbaijani units had opened heavy fire mainly from large-caliber weapons, on their own villages which have border with Armenia in Tavush region; it was aimed at further accusing the Armenian side.
Since the beginning of 2015 the state structures of Azerbaijan have acknowledged the death-facts of 6 soldiers: According to official figures 5 of them died in combat conditions on the front lines. Although the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claims that the career soldier Babashov Nizami Shamil oglu died as a result of careless handling of a gun, from funeral photos it becomes clear that the funeral ceremony was accompanied by honor guard, honorary salvo in presence of high-ranking militants. It's very strange when you consider the fact that they were burying a soldier who died as a result of careless handling of a weapon. Moreover, the Azerbaijani news website “Qafqazinfo.az”, which was the first to report about the death of the soldier, became unavailable shortly after the publication of the photos of Babashov. According to the chief editor of Elbrus Scrabble the website has undergone a powerful cyberattack.