It is very important to clarify the concepts of ‘course’ and ‘future course’ of the 4 days of April 2016. This is what Spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan told Tert.am, touching upon the question on how many casualties the Armenian army suffered during the Four-Day Artsakh War in April 2016.

“When stating the number of casualties, it is necessary to focus on the first four days because the serious battles took place during those days. If we start counting the casualties after those four days, we can count the casualties all year long. Throughout the past three years, there have been sabotages, and the number of casualties has increased and decreased. This is why when we say the casualties of the Four-Day Artsakh War, it would be right to focus on the first 4 days, and there were 75 casualties (61 military servicemen). I would like to attach importance to the fact that half of them were officers, 12 were militia and 2 were from the reserve.”

Artsrun Hovhannisyan called on people to be a little modest when talking about human lives and casualties.

When asked if those wounded during the first 4 days and those who died later are also among the 75 casualties, Hovhannisyan said the following: “Fortunately, there were not that many wounded and deceased people. I can’t answer the question since there were people who died later.”

When told that people perhaps state the number of people who were wounded and later died when stating that there were 100 casualties, Hovhannisyan said: “Even if they count all the incidents, there are 102 casualties and 4 deceased civilians. If they say 106 people, I will understand that, but they say ‘hundreds of people died’.”

Artsrun Hovhannisyan also touched upon the photo being posted on social media websites and showing that Armenia suffered 140 casualties in April 2016. “Perhaps the photo is being circulated intentionally. If we count all the casualties of 2016, why don’t we count the casualties of 2015 and show their photos?” he concluded.