Defense Ministry Provides Casualty Figures that Contradict Pashinyan's Claims

Sputnik Armenia sent inquiries to the Ministries of Defense and Health to understand the numerical data regarding the deceased individuals and the identities of the bodies and remains identified by forensic examinations. The responses are presented here.

As of March 31, a total of 3,049 deaths have been recorded from the recent Nagorno-Karabakh war. This information was provided by the Ministry of Defense of Armenia in response to a written inquiry from Sputnik Armenia.

On March 20, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced in the Aragatsotn region that the officially confirmed number of casualties was 3,250. Moreover, he mentioned that 189 parents had submitted DNA samples and were awaiting results. Thus, it appears that Pashinyan stated the number of casualties was 201 higher than reported by the Ministry 11 days later.

The Ministry of Defense clarified that the figure of 3,049 refers to both military personnel and civilian individuals who participated in combat operations voluntarily.

The Ministry of Health was also queried regarding the status of forensic examinations. In their response, they provided the data available as of March 31. “As of March 31, a total of 3,723 forensic examinations of bodies and remains have been conducted. On the same day, there are 238 body and remains samples that need to undergo further examination,” stated the response to the media inquiry.

However, this does not mean that there are 3,723 casualties as of that date, since there may be instances of double examinations, and after the examination, it can be established that some remains belong to the same individual.

Additionally, the Ministry of Health reported that as of March 31, 2,302 bodies and remains of deceased military personnel and civilians had been identified through forensic genetic examinations. This also does not imply that the identity of that many individuals has been determined by the same principle, as several remains may belong to the same person.

There are also cases where the bodies of the deceased are only undergoing forensic examination, and parents refuse DNA tests as they can clearly recognize their loved ones.

It should be noted that unofficial data suggests that the number of Armenian casualties may reach 4,000.