02:02, 8 January 2018

CDSI: 119 soldiers and officers killed in Southern Caucasus in 2017

Military exercises. Photo © Sputnik / Uliana Solovieva

78 out of 119 soldiers and officers of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, deceased in 2017, are non-combat casualties. The rest were killed in connection with violation of the ceasefire, the Caspian Defence Studies Institute (CDSI) reported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in January 2017, the CDSI reported 318 deaths of soldiers and officers from the countries of Southern Caucasus in 2016.

The CDSI was opened in Germany in 2015. One of its founders was Jasur Sumerinli, who headed the Centre for Journalistic Military Studies "Doctrine" before leaving Azerbaijan in 2014.

According to the research, in 2017, at least 59 soldiers and officers were killed in Azerbaijan. 19 casualties in the Karabakh conflict zone are attributed to combat losses, the remaining 40 to non-combat ones.

The CDSI has reported that in the period from May 12, 1994, to April 7, 2016, the losses of the armed forces of Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict zone amounted to about 2000 killed and wounded.

The total losses of Armenia reached 59 people. Of them, 22 soldiers and officers were killed in combat actions.

In 2017, in Georgia, one special troop's fighter who participated in an antiterrorist special operation was killed. Besides, ten Georgian soldiers were injured.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.