"We Know How Many Bodies We Have and Where They Are, But We Encountered Heavy Fire While Retrieving Soldiers' Remains": Deputy Chief of Staff

Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia, Major General Arakel Martikian, confirmed today during a meeting with ambassadors and journalists in Vardenis the reports that there are bodies of casualties in the heights of one of the positions in Verin Shorja, and that the Ministry of Defense has not yet retrieved them.

“We have only left those positions where our comrades have fallen. Today we know how many bodies we have of our friends, and this is our most painful matter. A soldier who has given his life for the homeland deserves to be returned to the earth with honor. Azerbaijan declared a so-called humanitarian ceasefire, but a humanitarian ceasefire implies the retrieval of the wounded and the dead. Our attempts to retrieve our comrades’ remains encountered strong fire from the adversary. They announced that the Azerbaijani side would return the bodies of our servicemen. We know that there are bodies that are in the immediate positions,” he said, refraining from providing specific numbers.