STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS: The military and political authorities of Azerbaijan should have courage to reveal the whole truth via the statement, spread by their Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “They just should have enough courage to say the truth and add another sentence in their statement – that the military flights in the airspace of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic are prohibited for the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. It is the reality and has functioned since 1994. We know what losses their air defense had then from our air flights”, - the Spokesperson of the Artsakh President Davit Babayan told Armenpress, adding that the territory, where the Armenian unarmed helicopter fell on November 12, was under the fire of the rival during the entire night.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan spread a statement on the Armenian helicopter crashed by Azerbaijan on the line of contact between the Karabakh-Azerbaijan forces, saying that Azerbaijan announced the Karabakh territory to be a no-fly zone and correspondingly informed about it all the members of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

On November 12 the OSCE Minsk Group spread a statement, condemning the incident.

On November 13 the European Union issued a statement on the incident: “Following reports of a cease-fire breach on 12 November 2014 along the Line of Contact, in which a military helicopter is reported to have been shot down, it is essential that all sides show restraint and avoid any actions or statements which could escalate the situation. Furthermore, we call for an investigation into this incident. The European Union reiterates its full support to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group and the three Co-Chairs. Both sides have to strictly respect the ceasefire, to refrain from the use of force or any threat thereof, and to resume efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.”

Previously it was reported that in the airspace of the eastern sector of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani border, in the result of the violation of the ceasefire regime, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces shot a helicopter Mi-24 of the Air Forces of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic during a training flight on November 12 at 13:45. The place of the shot is very close to the line of contact. The press service of the Defense Army of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic informed Armenpress that the rival continues firing in the direction of the incident. The details of the incident are being investigated. Later it was announced from Stepanakert that by preliminary data there are three victims. The Commander of the staff was the Major Sergey Sahakyan.

The Spokesperson of the Artsakh President Davit Babayan told Armenpress that the helicopter was not intended for military actions. “The helicopter was not intended for military actions and did not have any weapons in it. It just implemented training exercises. The helicopter was not of danger for the rival. The Azerbaijani side hit the helicopter from the back”, - said Davit Babayan.