Nine years have passed since the beginning of the April battles

Nine years have passed since the beginning of the glorious April battles.

As BAKU.WS reminds, the Azerbaijani army inflicted a crushing defeat on the enemy during a lightning counteroffensive operation conducted on the front line on April 2, 2016, in response to the provocations of the Armenian armed forces that began in late March. The Armenian side assumed they would teach Azerbaijan a lesson, but the opposite happened.

On the night of April 1-2, 2016, and throughout the day, all border positions and settlements of Azerbaijan were subjected to intense artillery fire from the Armenian armed forces. As a result of the artillery shelling of Azerbaijani settlements located near the confrontation line, six civilians were killed, including two children under 16 years old, and 26 people were seriously injured.

The attacks also caused serious damage to numerous public and private properties, including civilian infrastructure. 232 private residential houses, 99 electric poles, three electrical substations, and kilometers of water and gas pipes were destroyed. The Armenian armed forces struck social institutions, including schools, hospitals, and places of worship with guided missiles. Large-caliber artillery shells hit one of the mosques during a service.

In order to suppress the Armenian provocation and ensure the safety of the civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces command decided to take urgent retaliatory measures in the directions of Agdere - Terter - Agdam and Khojavend - Fuzuli.

As a result of the four-day military operation, sections of the occupied territories of Fuzuli, Jabrayil, and Agdere districts with a total area of more than 2,000 hectares were liberated. Also, thousands of hectares of the remaining territory came under the full control of the Azerbaijani army.

The mythical "Ohanyan defense line" was destroyed by our victorious army in just 20 minutes. In the April battles, Azerbaijan used the most modern weapons, which greatly frightened Armenia, in particular, Harop kamikaze drones and heavy TOS-1A flamethrower systems, known as "weapons from hell."

The Azerbaijani army liberated a number of important strategic heights, including Lele Tepe and Talysh. The liberation of Lele Tepe, which allows control over a vast territory, ensured the safety of the Jojug Marjanly settlement in Jabrayil district and the city of Horadiz in Fuzuli district.

As a result of the crushing blows of our army, more than 30 tanks, 25 artillery installations and other enemy military equipment were destroyed, 320 Armenian servicemen were killed and more than a thousand were wounded. Control was established over a number of roads in the direction of the Goranboy village of Gulistan and the Terter settlement of Sugovushan (then - Madagiz).

Military operations were ceased on April 5 in accordance with the Moscow agreement between the chiefs of the general staffs of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The four-day April battles became for Azerbaijan the beginning of the path to the Great Victory and played a decisive role in the liberation of the remaining territories from occupation.

On September 27, 2020, the Patriotic War began in response to another Armenian provocation. Under the leadership of Supreme Commander Ilham Aliyev, lands that had been under Armenian occupation for almost 30 years were liberated. During 44 days, five cities, four settlements and 286 villages were liberated, including the city of Jabrayil and 90 villages of the district, the city of Fuzuli and 53 villages of the district, the city of Zangilan, the settlements of Minjivan, Agbend, Bartaz and 52 villages of the district, the settlement of Hadrut and 35 villages of the Khojavend district, three villages of the Terter district, the city of Gubadly and 41 villages of the district, nine villages of the Khojaly district, the city of Shusha, three villages of the Lachin district, several strategic heights in the direction of Agdere