Thus, on 23 March 2015, Azerbaijan's Minister of Defence stated that the Azerbaijani military had accumulated the necessary weaponry to destroy 70 percent of opposing forces in a first strike.

[citation needed] In February 2016, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned that Azerbaijan's military buildup combined with deteriorating economic conditions was increasing the risk of an escalation in 2016.

[53] On 2 April, Azerbaijani positions and inhabited places near the front line came under fire from Armenian military, armed with mortars and high caliber grenade launchers, that killed 2 people and wounded 10 civilians.

[43] Armenian Ministry of Defence spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan sharply accused Azerbaijan of launching an unprovoked coordinated ground offensive against Armenia's forces, saying the Azerbaijani military used warplanes, tanks and artillery to try to make inroads into Nagorno-Karabakh.

[6] During the first day of fighting, Armenian forces claimed to have destroyed at least three Azerbaijani tanks, two military helicopters (including an Mi-24[59][60] and at least one armed Mil Mi-8/17) and two unmanned drones, photographs and videos of which surfaced on the internet.

[63] On 8 April, news footage shown on an Azerbaijani TV channel showed the Azerbaijan military installations purported to be near the Talysh heights.

[68] Later, Defence Minister Zakir Hasanov stated that if shelling of Azerbaijani settlements by Armenian forces did not cease, Azerbaijan would consider launching an artillery bombardment on Stepanakert.

[70] On 4 April, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence reported that an Armenian command and control center had been destroyed and released a video which captured footage of the attack.

On 5 April, a strategically important military base in Madaghis which is on the main road leading to Aghdara city and a bus carrying "Yerkrapah" Armenian volunteers were fired.

[91] The Ministry of Defence of the Artsakh Republic published some aerial photos to prove that Azerbaijan deploys military units near populated areas and violated the Article 52 of Geneva Convention.

[95] A temporary ceasefire agreement mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross and field assistants of the OSCE, allowed for both sides to collect dead and missing soldiers.

[108] On 4 April, it was reported that Azerbaijani forces decapitated the body of a Yazidi-Armenian soldier, Kyaram Sloyan, who had been killed in action,[109][110][111] with videos and pictures of his severed head posted on social networks.

[120] Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan condemned the encouragement of the Azerbaijani serviceman who was depicted on another photo where the mutilated head of Sloyan was manifestly shown.

[121] On 8 April, Artak Beglaryan, a spokesperson for the NKR Prime Minister, posted a photo on his Twitter account showing the beheaded corpse of an Armenian soldier.

The plaintiffs demanded to recognize the case of inhumane treatment with regard to the bodies, lack of respect for their privacy, and discrimination based on nationality.

[134] On 10 April, the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic said that of the 18 bodies of Armenian soldiers transferred that same day by Azerbaijan, all showed signs of torture or mutilation.

[137] The NKR State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons called this claim by Azerbaijan a cynical attempt to mislead the international community, observing that before the start of the exchange procedure, all the bodies of the dead soldiers had been examined in the presence of representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and no traces of abuse or ill-treatment had been discovered or registered on Azerbaijani soldiers.

"[145] Independent Armenian journalist Tatul Hakobyan, who visited the frontline during the clashes, remarked that the death of scores of soldiers of both sides was "senseless" as no real change occurred.

"[152] British journalist Thomas de Waal, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War, does not believe that the Azerbaijani offensive was meant as a full-scale military operation but rather as a limited attempt to bring the conflict back on the international agenda and put Armenia under pressure.

The OSCE Minsk Group organized a meeting only several days after the beginning of the fighting, and by that time the parties had already come to a ceasefire agreement in Moscow.

[citation needed] As the former US ambassador to the Minsk Group Matthew Bryza puts it, "The key to resolving this is to get the two presidents to have sufficient trust in each other, and Russia is not going to be able to do that".

[156] Armenian Ministry of Defence Spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan stated that the Azerbaijani attempted to take part of northern Karabakh with a "blitzkrieg", which failed.

[157] After a ceasefire was reached NKR Defence Army Colonel Victor Arustamyan said that one military position was left under Azerbaijani control, which was of no strategic significance.

[158] On 24 April President Serzh Sargsyan acknowledged that Azerbaijani troops had taken very small pieces of land in the north and south of the contact line, which he said had no strategic importance for Armenian forces, who had not attempted to reclaim them to avoid additional loss of life.

[162] President Sargsyan stated that Armenia would formally recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh "if the military operations continue and acquire a large scale.

[168] Azerbaijani opposition websites say Azerbaijan long-serving chief of general staff Najmaddin Sadigov may be replaced over 4-day war by the First Corps Commander and deputy Nizami Osmanov, but this was refuted by the Ministry of Defence spokesman.

Colonel Mais Barkhudarov was awarded with the rank of general-major by the Azerbaijani President because of his personal participation in the military operation to take the heights of Lalatapa.

According to human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, attacks against Karimli are "diverting attention from truly important issues and testing technologies to distract people's justified anger caused by the serious consequences of wrong decisions.

According to the Meydan TV chief editor Emin Milli, each person on their list really died in the clashes, and he stated that the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan could not deny this information.

[181] In July 2016, armed gunmen demanding the release of Sefilian and the ruling out of any territorial concessions in Nagorno-Karabakh took over a police station in Yerevan, triggering a two-week hostage crisis.