Sharmazanov’s lie about damage caused by Russian weapons

Today vice-speaker of National Assembly and spokesman of the Republican Party Eduard Sharmazanov, referring to president Serzh Sargsyan, stated that «we can blame (edit. Russia) only when Russian weapon supplied to Azerbaijan causes direct damage to us». In fact, thus Sharmazanov tried to convey that Russian weapons delivered to Azerbaijan did not do us any direct harm. However, the reality is exactly the opposite.

Mi-24 helicopter

For years Russia has supplied various military equipment and ammunition to Azerbaijan. Almost every day Russian-manufactured bullets and other types of ammunition are fired in the direction of soldiers of Armenian army. That ammunition is not considered as «conventional» (this is about Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) and no international institution registers their sales.

In 2012-2013 Russia supplied 1000 units of Igla-S missiles with 200 missile launchers.

On November 12, 2014 in the eastern part of Artsakh Mi-24 helicopter belonging to Armenian Air Force was shot down by Azerbaijani forces with the use of Igla-S missiles recently obtained from Russia while conducting a training flight as part of military drills. Three crew members of the helicopter died.

The April war

In recent years Russia has delivered to Azerbaijan 100 units of T-90s main battle tank, 18 units of Solntsepyok  («Sunheat») flamethrower system designed for burning the infantry alive, more than one thousand anti-tank missiles, 24 attack helicopters, 18 units of Smerch burst fire system and other types of self-propelled artillery, all of which were used during the April war in 2016.

The April war began with the attack of Mi-35M helicopters supplied to Azerbaijan by Russia in 2011-2014 (the attack was repulsed).

Further, various artillery systems were thrown into the battle, including Russian self-propelled artillery systems that were delivered after 2012.

T-90s tanks delivered in 2013-2014 did not remain on the sidelines during the fighting as well. So, for example, an attempt was made to launch a large-scale tank attack in the direction of Aghdam (it was prevented by artillery).

Azerbaijani side shot down 14 Armenian tanks using weapons including Russian anti-tank systems Bastion, and at noon on April 4, in the area of Talish village, Azerbaijan also used Russian flamethrowers TOS-1A Solntsepyok.

Later, during the night of 4 to 5 April Azerbaijani side also used Smerch burst fire systems with cluster warhead missiles prohibited by Dublin convention (they were supplied in 2012-2014).

If not armored

Thus, Armenian side had about 100 victims, lost 800 hectares of the territory as a result of the aggression from Azerbaijani side mainly using Russian weapons.

And, in general, it could be argued, that April war might never take place, if Russia, like many other countries, refused to supply arms to Azerbaijan (the OSCE Minsk Group member countries agreed upon it in 1994 in Budapest).

Consequently, Eduard Sharmazanov’s statement about the damage caused to us by Russian weapons is a lie. Thus, Sharmazanov joined Serzh Sargsyan and David Babayan, who over the past few days also made false statements regarding supply of Russian arms to Baku.