Military analysts doubt veracity of Baku's and Yerevan's reports on enemy losses

The parties to the Karabakh conflict, as during any war, are understating their own losses and exaggerate the enemy's ones, since the information war is a part of the military confrontation, military analysts believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that combat actions have been going on in the Karabakh conflict zone since September 27. The martial law is in force in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

The parties in conflict are deliberately distorting data on their own losses, trying not to undermine the morale of their army and their people's patriotic enthusiasm, but overestimate the enemy's losses, trying to sow uncertainty in the opposing army and undermine the people's faith in it, said Azad Isazade, a military analyst and a former employee of the information and analytical department of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD).

According to his story, for the first time Azerbaijan fails to present data on its losses, while during the 1992-1994 hostilities and in April 2016, the Azerbaijani Army gave this information.

"This time, apparently, they decided not to report the losses, and inform about them after the end of hostilities. There have been such cases in the international practice. Of course, there are losses. There are reports about casualties' funerals in Baku and other regions. There are wounded persons; and President Ilham Aliev has himself recently visited them at hospital," Mr Isazade told the "Caucasian Knot".

He found it difficult to estimate even approximate losses. He explained that the estimates of enemy's losses are approximate, especially in modern wars, when battles are often fought remotely.

Telman Abilov, the head of the NGO "Military Lawyers", also believes that the parties overestimate enemy's losses and underestimate their own ones. In particular, he believes, the Armenian side excessively overestimates the losses of Azerbaijan.

"They claim almost 1300 killed Azerbaijanis, but they fail providing any reliable proofs," Mr Abilov told the "Caucasian Knot".

The war is now in its active phase; and it's wrong to give any clear estimate of combat losses of both sides, Robert Nazaryan, a military expert of the "Razm.info" Armenian military news agency, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He believes that the presence of foreign journalists and observers in the conflict zone would partially make it possible to get a true assessment of what is happening.

"In Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh], both local and foreign media work; they are covering the shelling of peaceful settlements by the Azerbaijani Army. Journalists themselves came under fire several times; and some of them also have been wounded. While Azerbaijan blocks the presence of foreign press; only Turkish journalists work on the frontline," Mr Nazaryan has explained.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 3, 2020 at 05:29 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.