Ten years on: Remembering Azerbaijan’s glorious April Battles

It has been ten years since the beginning of the April Battles, a defining moment in Azerbaijan’s modern military history.

As Caliber.Az recalls, the Azerbaijani army delivered a crushing defeat to the enemy during a lightning-fast counteroffensive operation along the front line on April 2, 2016, in response to provocations by the Armenian armed forces that began in late March. The Armenian side had hoped to teach Azerbaijan a lesson, but the outcome was the opposite.

On the night of April 1–2, 2016, and throughout the following day, all Azerbaijani positions and settlements came under intense artillery fire from the Armenian armed forces. As a result of the shelling of Azerbaijani settlements near the front line, six civilians were killed, including two children under 16, and 26 people were seriously injured.

The attacks also caused significant damage to civilian infrastructure. A total of 232 private homes, 99 electric poles, three power substations, and kilometres of water and gas pipelines were destroyed. The Armenian armed forces struck social facilities with guided missiles, including schools, hospitals, and places of worship. Artillery shells of large calibre hit one mosque during a religious service.

To halt the Armenian provocation and ensure the safety of the civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces command decided to take urgent countermeasures along the Aghdara–Tartar–Aghdam and Khojavend–Fuzuli directions.

As a result of the four-day military operation, sections of the occupied territories in the Fuzuli and Jabrayil districts, covering a total area of over 2,000 hectares, were liberated.

The mythical “Ohanyan defence line” was destroyed by our victorious army in just 20 minutes. During the April Battles, Azerbaijan deployed its most advanced weapons, causing significant alarm in Armenia, including Harop loitering munition drones and heavy TOS-1A flamethrower systems, famously known as “weapons from hell.”

The Azerbaijani army also recaptured several strategically important heights, including Lalatapa. Securing Lalatapa, which allows control over a vast area, ensured the safety of the village of Jojug Marjanli in the Jabrayil district and the city of Horadiz in the Fuzuli district.

As a result of the Azerbaijani army’s devastating strikes, over 30 enemy tanks, 25 artillery systems, and other military equipment were destroyed, with 320 Armenian servicemen killed and more than a thousand wounded. Control was secured over several key roads in the direction of the Goranboy village of Gulustan and the Tartar settlement of Sugovushan (then Madagiz).

Hostilities ceased on April 5 in accordance with the Moscow Agreement between the chiefs of staff of the Azerbaijani and Armenian Armed Forces.

The four-day April Battles marked the beginning of Azerbaijan’s path to the Great Victory and played a decisive role in the liberation of the remaining occupied territories.

“Year 2016 will also remain in history as one of our glorious victories. For the first time since 1994, Azerbaijan has managed to liberate a portion of its lands from the aggressors. By preventing an Armenian armed provocation in April, our army dealt a devastating blow to the enemy and freed a portion of our occupied lands [...] We did have martyrs. May Allah rest their souls in peace. The Azerbaijani people, the Azerbaijani soldiers and officers demonstrated true heroism [...] The April battles are a glorious page in our history,” said President Ilham Aliyev.