Death Statistics: Armenian/Azerbaijani casualties in 2014

Personal photos of Armenian helicopter crew who were killed in November 2014

As was already clear in August, 2014 became the bloodiest year in the Karabakh conflict since the 1990s. I have updated the statistics for the entire year, based on the published names of military and civilians dead. These include 39 Azerbaijani and 33 Armenian names that have been identified as killed in combat, sniper attacks, mine incidents and (one) death in custody. This is a total of at least 72 deaths and is probably not a complete tally. I have also traced these fatalities by month.

Of 39 Azerbaijani names, 22 were enlisted (18-19 year olds), 9 – contracted NCOs (nearly all members of special forces), 6 – officers and 2 – civilians. Of 33 Armenian names, 13 were enlisted (18-20 year olds), 6 – contracted NCOs and privates, 8 -officers and 6 - civilians.

Of the 33 Armenian deaths, 17 were from sniper fire, 9 in direct combat engagements, 4 in mine explosions and 3 died away from the border (two killed in Kelbajar and one died in custody in Shamkhor). Of the 39 Azerbaijani deaths, 16 were killed in direct combat engagements, 14 – by sniper fire, 5 – in mine explosions and causes of death in four cases were not clarified.

Throughout the year there were also many dozens of wounded in shooting and mine incidents, some of them seriously.

Death tally by month traces the escalation and de-escalation throughout the year: 

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	‘14
Arm	2	0	3	2	3	4	8	4	1	1	4	1	33
Az	2	2	3	4	2	2	3	14	3	1	1	2	39

(Note also these numbers DO NOT include non-combat deaths, such as reported suicides, fratricides, auto accidents, etc; or unconfirmed reports of combat casualties. Following serious casualties sustained by Azerbaijani army in August, Aliyev introduced additional military censorship and with crackdown on its media, there has been no independent reports on Azerbaijani military from inside the country in the past three months and there is likely to be under-reporting.)