Four years have passed since the four-day April War that claimed the lives of more than 100 Armenian servicemen.
On the night of 1 to 2 April, in flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement of 12 May 1994 and the agreement of 6 February 1995 on strengthening the ceasefire, the Azerbaijani side undertook a large-scale offensive along the entire Line of Contact between the armed forces of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan, using heavy equipment, artillery and combat aviation.
The intensity and the scale of the military actions, the number of forces and combat equipment involved, as well as the statements of Azerbaijani officials clearly indicate that the events of 2-5 April were not a spontaneous escalation, but a carefully planned and prepared military aggression.
During the hostilities, the Azerbaijani army committed numerous war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law, both against civilians and soldiers of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.
Starting from the very first day of the aggression, the Azerbaijani army shelled a school in Martuni region, as a result of which 12-year-old Vagharshak Grigoryan was killed, and two children were injured. In the village of Talish of the Martakert region, the Azerbaijani servicemen committed brutal murder of three elderly Armenian family members, followed by mutilation of their bodies.
The bodies of over twenty soldiers of the NKR Defense Army were also abused. Azerbaijan has so far refused to transfer the cut-off heads of two servicemen to the Karabakh side.
A ceasefire was reached on 5 April between the chiefs of the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met twice on May 16 and June 20. The parties agreed to finalize in the shortest possible time an OSCE investigative mechanism, to expand the existing Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, as well as to continue the exchange of data on missing persons under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Despite the agreements reached, the Azerbaijani side has been refusing to take practical steps to implement them.
