What are the losses of the Armenian army?

Armenia, whose army was defeated after a 44-day war, was forced to sign an agreement on November 10. The Armenian society, which did not know anything about the situation in the war, was shocked by the realities it faced, the defeat of the Armenian army, about which a myth was created in 30 years. As for public support, it is not enough for the ongoing and now protest actions launched by 17 parties after November 10 against the government of Pashinyan, who is considered to be the culprit of the defeat. Despite the military defeat and the deplorable socio-economic situation, the main issue of concern to the Armenian society is the fate of the prisoners and the missing.

The Armenians themselves, recognizing the bankruptcy of their state, noted that among its structures, only the army is an exception. Although the official creation of the Armenian army is on January 28, 1992, its core began to form even earlier, since 1989. Thus, back in January 1990, the program "Time" of the Central Television of the USSR showed a report from Yerevan about the preparation of the attack on Nakhchivan by the Armenian detachments armed with armored vehicles. The information of the "Military Balance" states that along with 44,800 servicemen registered with the Armenian army, there are 20,000 people in the group called "Karabakh Defense Army", making a total of 64,800 personnel. In addition, during the war, more than 40 thousand servicemen of the Armenian army took part in the battles, who were defeated and suffered serious losses. The Armenian authorities, which have stated from the first day of the war that they will not disclose the figures on losses, still continue to do so.

But over time, some numbers come up. After November 10, when the Armenian Ministry of Defense reported 2,000 casualties, the Ministry of Health announced that 3,500 corpses had been registered. Soon after that, one of the heads of the Armenian Military Insurance Fund said that 4,500 Armenian servicemen were killed during the war, 5 thousand people became disabled in the 1st group, and 6,000 - in the 2nd group. Information about the disabled of the 3rd group was not provided at all. Since theoretically the figures between the groups are close, it is assumed that the number of disabled persons of the 3rd group will be 5-6 thousand. At the end of January, the death toll approached 4,000, according to the figure released by the Armenian Defense Ministry in connection with the losses. However, the opposition and many experts in Armenia claim that the death toll exceeds 5,000. In addition, nowhere is there information about the numerous mercenaries brought from abroad and hundreds of volunteers who did not pass registration, but who participated in the battles in Karabakh and were killed.

In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to the manipulation of numbers by Armenians in order to hide the real losses. Thus, they divide their armed forces into two parts called the Armenian army and the “Karabakh army”, dividing the losses as well. Apart from the political sense, this has an intention to reduce the losses of the Armenian army. Despite these attempts, the essence is the same. And then, how can it be that the army of 2 million Armenia has 44,800 people, and the armed forces of Karabakh, with a population of 60 thousand people, make up 20 thousand people. Armies are generally considered to have a personnel strength of 1% of the country's population. In Armenia this figure is 2.2%, and in Karabakh - 33.3%. Naturally, this is impossible. It's just that Armenia is documenting its army in Karabakh called the Karabakh Defense Army. On the other hand, it should be borne in mind that the number of Karabakhis among the Armenian servicemen who died in the April 2016 war was several people.

During the 44-day war, most of the Karabakh Armenians sent into the trenches voluntarily left their positions and took their families to Armenia. In this regard, it is known that there was serious discontent in the Armenian society of that time. Therefore, to the figures of the Armenian army, one should add the losses of the armed forces, the so-called “Karabakh defense army”, created from locals and Armenians from Armenia, stationed in Karabakh. The last figure announced by the separatists about the deaths is 2,624 people. In addition, thousands of Armenians are holding rallies both in Armenia and in Karabakh and want to receive information about their relatives, who are considered missing. If we add here the figures announced by the military prosecutor's office of Armenia in relation to about 11 thousand deserters, we get a terrifying picture.

Thus, the official death toll in Armenia and Karabakh is about 7,000 people. However, the Armenian leadership states that it will not officially disclose the latest figures. According to the official data received at the present time, the number of Armenian soldiers who died in 44 days of fighting is 4,000 + 2,624 = 6,624 people. As we noted earlier, these figures do not include the loss of killed volunteers and international mercenary terrorists.

If we take into account that the death toll (6,624) is 1/3 of the registered wounded in Armenia (16,000), this means that the real number of the wounded is 6,624 x3 = 19,872.

This does not include the wounded of the so-called "Karabakh Defense Army", the number of which has not been disclosed.

If we collect data on the dead, wounded and deserters, reflecting the losses of the Armenian army, numbering 64,800 personnel, then this will amount to 6,624 + 19,872 + 11,000 = 37,496 people. This is still a rather rounded statistics according to the official data of Armenia for today. And the unofficial figure, of course, is higher. This figure is in the thousands, and if we add that hundreds of unidentified bodies of soldiers are kept in refrigerators in Metsamor, whose searches are still ongoing as missing, then the scale of the figure obtained can be considered a disaster for the Armenian army. The death toll, injuries and deserters are around 40,000.

 The published figures show that 2/3 of the personnel and military equipment of the Armenian army were destroyed or wounded. That is, the Armenian army, the most influential structure of Armenian fascism after the church, was destroyed.

Ogtay Gasimov, assistant to ex-President Elchibey