STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS: The Nagorno Karabakh Republic has applied to the International Committee of the Red Cross for approaching and bringing out from the fire zone the crew of the helicopter downed by the Azerbaijanis at the course of the training flight. In a conversation with “Armenpress”, the Commander of the Defense Army of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Movses Hakobyan stated that they applied to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the morning, while there is another agency engaged in other current issues. Among other things, the Commander of the Defense Army of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Movses Hakobyan highlighted that they will spare no effort to return the bodies of the three pilots back to the homeland.  

“As the helicopter fell nearby the Azerbaijani position, our forces could not manage to approach our staff. On that occasion the Nagorno Karabakh Republic officially applied to the International Committee of the Red Cross to act as a mediator, so that we could regulate that issue in correspondence with the international rights”, - said Movses Hakobyan, adding that investigation is being carried out on the incident. Commenting on the situation on the border, Hakobyan characterized it as “usual”, adding that the border soldier realizes his role and implements his mission with honor.

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.

The Minsk Group Co-Chairs (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, James Warlick of the United States, and Pierre Andrieu of France) have also expressed very serious concern about the downing of a helicopter near the Line of Contact and the recent violence in their statement issued in Vienna.