April battles: 10 years ago, first step towards Victory was taken

Today we celebrate another anniversary of the April 2016 battles. It was the first major victory of the Azerbaijani army, which had unprecedented significance in terms of raising national spirit.

The April battles, which are also called the four-day war, became a moment of truth for the Azerbaijani people. We were not only convinced of the strength of our army, but also saw how capable the Azerbaijani people are of rallying in a difficult moment. Not only the enemy, but we ourselves did not expect that another Armenian provocation would so stir up the consciousness of the people. After April 2016, we all became different. The spirit of future victory was already in the air, and in just four and a half years it became a reality.

The April victory, one might say, was an exam, a rehearsal for the great Victory that the Azerbaijani soldier won in November 2020. For Armenia, these events marked the beginning of the end. Although the revanchists still continue to tell tales of some kind of "victory", they no longer manage to deceive even themselves.

On the night of April 2, 2016, the Armenian armed forces and illegal separatist formations launched a provocation, launching an offensive in the direction of the village of Tapgaragoyunlu. The aggressor began shelling Azerbaijani positions along the entire front. They fired from large-caliber weapons, mortars, and hit settlements and civilian objects. The Azerbaijani army gave a proper rebuff to the enemy, and then launched a counteroffensive, defeating the enemy's first line of defense, which had been painstakingly created by him for two decades. As a result, significant territories were liberated, and enemy troops were dislodged from several strategic positions and heights. The important height of Leletepe, the heights around the village of Talysh, was taken under control. By the way, during the 44-day war, the Armenian side made incredible efforts to retake Leletepe, considering it a symbol of its so-called "victories."

In general, more than 2,000 hectares of land in the territories of Fizuli, Jabrayil and Agder districts were liberated from the invaders. Later, there were many clowns in Armenia who tried to explain to the Armenians how unimportant Leletepe and other losses of the invaders were. However, they did not explain at the same time why they lost dozens of soldiers in the battle for Leletepe, if it was so unimportant.

After the April fighting, the situation in the Karabakh conflict has become completely different. The status quo, which was being held by Armenia and its allies in the person of the Minsk Group co-chairs, has been shaken. No one knows how that April would have ended if the Azerbaijani Army had not been given limited tasks. Contrary to Armenian propaganda, in fact, the April fighting was not a "failed war." Baku had no plans to begin the complete liberation of the territories at that moment, because all the diplomatic logistics had not yet been secured. In addition, it was necessary to first try out new weapons and new combat tactics. In short, in April 2016, the conditions for a large-scale counteroffensive had not yet matured. The Azerbaijani army was tasked with stopping the enemy's offensive, driving it away and ensuring the safety of populated areas. This task has been fully completed.

And what about the occupiers? The invaders fled. Having received a powerful rebuff, the aggressor began to call for help. Panic began in the ranks of the Armenian occupation forces. The soldiers ran away. It was the April 2016 battles that revealed the whole truth about the Armenian army for the first time. The population of the occupied territories fled after the military. The Armenians rushed deep into the occupation zone, and many ran all the way to Armenia. Convinced of the victoriousness of their "invincible" army, many did not dare to return for several months after the end of the fighting.

In those days, a letter addressed by the separatist regime to Seyran Ohanyan appeared on social media. In it, the Armenian Defense Minister was informed that residents of Askeran, Agderin and Khojavend districts were leaving their homes and heading to Yerevan. They are trying to stop them, for which posts have been set up at the exit from the city of Askeran. The message also spoke about the decline in the morale of soldiers and the frequent cases of desertion. The established posts were set up not so much for civilians as for soldiers and officers fleeing from the battle zone. But it wasn't a real war yet.

After the April victory, President Ilham Aliyev warned that Azerbaijan had used only a small part of its arsenal during the fighting. And Armenians should not deceive themselves, because our country has the most modern weapons, which Armenia cannot handle. "It's just that, unlike the Armenian leadership, we don't demonstrate it for the sake of propaganda. But if necessary, and when the time comes, we will once again show what we have," the President said at the time.

That time has come in September 2020. The aggressor has learned an unforgettable lesson. The "training" lasted 44 days and ended with a brilliant victory.

Azerbaijan has never hidden its intentions to return the lands occupied by Armenia. And after the April fighting, these intentions already sounded like a historical inevitability. Armenia did not heed the repeated warnings of the Azerbaijani leader. If they had listened, a major war and bloodshed could have been avoided.

In April 2021, at the opening of the War Trophy Park, President Ilham Aliyev said that we had given Armenia a chance. They gave me a chance back during the April 2016 battles.

"At the time of the April fighting, they called the chief of the Russian General Staff in Moscow day and night, begging Azerbaijan to stop the war. We stopped on the condition that negotiations begin immediately, and they have begun... A summit meeting was held in Russia in June. Sargsyan gave me his word that he needed two weeks. Like, I promise that I will resolve this issue. I agreed, and he left. After that, either they organized it themselves, or it happened by itself, they seized the police station. Under the pretext of this, he refused. We were deceived again. And not only Sargsyan, all of them. In 2018, the Nakhchivan operation was carried out, we once again taught them a lesson, once again showed that all this would end badly, we would destroy them. And it didn't serve as a lesson."

All this ended with the Second Karabakh War for Armenia and the defeat of the occupier. And in September 2023, the conflict came to an end. The history of the bloody conflict unleashed by Armenia ended at this moment and was archived, Azerbaijan will not allow anyone to get it out of there, blow off the dust and try to start all over again.

But the book of victories of Azerbaijani weapons is still being written. It will not be closed.