Azerbaijani military experts treat MoD's data on losses as realistic

Azerbaijani military observers have called the official statistics of losses in the battles for Karabakh as close to reality.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 21, the Azerbaijani military prosecutor's office counted 2858 soldiers who perished in the hostilities in the fall of 2020.

The latest data released by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) on the losses of the country's military forces during the 44-day military campaign can be treated as close to final figures, Telman Abilov, the head of the NGO "Military Lawyers" believes.

"In classical wars, at approximately equal combat potentials and military personnel, it was considered that the attacking party should have more losses. But the last autumn's Karabakh escalation was a war of the 21st century. Azerbaijan conducted its offensives by using combat and reconnaissance drones," Mr Abilov has explained.

Shakhin Gadjiev, a military observer of the "Turan" News Agency, also treats the MoD's data as "realistic." "The Azerbaijani Army was at war against the enemy, which occupied strategic heights, which predefined a large number of casualties in the first days of the war. It should be borne in mind that the Azerbaijani Army was better equipped with high-precision weapons; and after the defeat of the enemy's air defence system, it waged an almost non-contact war. During the final conflict phase, the only exception was, perhaps, the battle for Shusha," Shakhin Gadjiev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 22, 2021 at 02:20 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.