CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VI (1) Contemporary-Eurasia-VI-1-engl | Seite 15

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VI (1)
The assessment of the outcomes of the military operations of 2-5
April 2016 by Baku and Yerevan was contradictory. The President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev claimed that the military acts of the
Azerbaijani army were in fact defensive and that they occurred in
response to just another military provocation against Azerbaijan. He
highly appreciated the activities of the Azerbaijani armed forces as a
“knockout blow against the enemy and big military victory”. The
Azeri Defense Minister Zakir Gasanov also stated that “the 2 nd of
April will remain in the history of the Azerbaijani army as a day of
great victory” 13 . These conclusions were made at the initial stage of
the offensive and did not change after the end of the war which was
not triumphant for Azerbaijan at all. For example, on 9 May 2016,
Ilham Aliyev stated “our army conducted a successful counteroffensive
operation in Karabakh. As a result, some of our occupied territories
were liberated from intruders, and our positions on the contact line
became even stronger. Once again I congratulate all Azerbaijani
people on this great historical victory from the bottom of my heart” 14 .
In the opinion of the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan,
Armenian armed forces accomplished all tasks assigned to them.
Responding to the strong criticism from the local opposition, he said:
“I set a clear task for our armed forces and security system – to
prevent a breakthrough and destruction of our front line, i.e. ruin the
plans of the enemy. I believe you all could see that their plans
failed” 15 .
S. Sargsyan held back from enthusiastic conclusions: “If you
necessarily want me to say we won, I can say that but most correct
would be to say, “our armed forces accomplished their task”.
Speaking about the territories lost in the course of the war, he
commented, “Armenia which had 800 thousand hectares of land
constituting the security area lost about 800 hectares, which is less
13
The President Ilham Aliyev: Azerbaijan had a major military victory,
03.04.2016, http://news.day.az/politics/765965.html
14
Ilham Aliyev equated the Karabakh war in April with the Great Patriotic War,
10 May 2016, https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2016/05/10/ilham-aliev-priravnyal-
aprelskuyu-voynu-v-karabahe-k-velikoy-otechestvennoy-voyne
15
Serzh Sargsyan: The army accomplished the task, 17.05.2016,
http://golosarmenii.am/article/40977/serzh-sargsyan-armiya-vypolnila-zadachu
15