Thread by @NKobserver

🧵MAJOR – New details on Azerbaijan’s offensive into Karabakh during the 2020 war revealed in a private telephone conversation by a vice-commander (Babek Semidli). Just posted by non-state affiliated @MeydanTV in Azeri.

Source:

#Azerbaijan #Karabakh

PRELUDE – Col Semidli was vice-Commander of Azerbaijan’s 1st Army Corps during the 2020 Karabakh war (Terter-Martakert front), this conversation occurred a few days before he was killed by a land mine 2 weeks after the war, speaking with an unknown/undisclosed individual.

1⃣PREPARATION FASE - According to Semidli, the military's vice-Chief-of-Staff sought to assure officers that the adversary's [Armenian and Karabakhi] forces were lower and that Azeri forces had an advantage, apparently some commanders refuted this, saying their forces were...

...equal, "I can't go against 140 tanks with 140 myself, I need at least 250 [to go against 140], Semidli's superior, the 1st Corps commander went against the move, stating he needs an advantage of 3-to-1 to avoid big losses, he can't go against 9 battalions with only 6,...

...he continued "the adversary has had 30 years to build a defence system." After the 2020 July Armenia-Azerbaijan border clash along the Tovuz area, Azeri authorities started officially downplaying Armenia's military numbers.

Speaking about the 44-day war, Semidli mentioned Turkey and Erodgan coming to aid Azerbaijan, "...had the Bayraktars not come, we wouldn't have been able to maintain an advantage, we would have had a lot of failures in our attacks"

MOBILISATION - Semidli states he received conscripts who had finished their compulsory military service around 2005 and 5 days to train them, he basically "received, clothed and armed" them, not enough time, many had forgotten everything and not in physical shape...

...had he been given around 15 days at least, he says, the war would've taken not 44 but 20 days, "every day during the war means billions [money-wise]," had the war continued, it would've have serious consequences for the economy.

THE WAR - The adversary had Belarussian D-20 artillery with a 30 km range, we had D-30s and D-44s, with a 15 km range, only infantry was prepared, incapable of mountain warfare, special forces were needed for this. Semidli also states he only had 1 recon battalion...

...against 2 the Karabakhis had facing him. After the 2016 April war, Semidli sought to modify his motorised troops to mountainous ones, and was ignored by government officials. At the start of the 2020 war, his troops had 2 weeks of artillery shells, 62% had body armour...

..., 51% had communication devices. Three days before the war, T-55 tanks were rolled out, none had communication devices to communicate with other tanks. According to Semidli, his 1st Army Corps of 20,000 troops had 7 Garmin GPS devices, they needed at least 100.

LOSSES - About losses, Semidli mentioned that their only goal was to win the war at all costs even if losing battalions or brigades "we didn't consider the losses", President Aliyev's order had to be carried out, and the task completed.