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Azerbaijan Says Shot Down Armenian Military Helicopter

November 12, 2014
by RFE/RL

Azerbaijan's military says it has shot down an Mi-24 combat helicopter near the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and reports said three people were killed, in what Armenia's Defense Ministry called an 'unprecedented provocation.'

A November 12 statement from the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said earlier that day, 'Two military helicopters, performing combat maneuvers over the Azerbaijani positions, attempted to open fire at the positions of the Azerbaijani armed forces after coming into combat course at 1,700 meters northeast from Kangarli village of Aghdam region.'

It said Azerbaijani troops returned fire and brought down the helicopter.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry added, 'According to preliminary information, the three servicemen of Armenian military forces on board were killed.'

It was reportedly the first time a military aircraft has been shot down in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in at least 20 years.

The self-proclaimed 'self-defense forces' of Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region controlled by ethnic Armenians, confirmed one of its helicopters was shot down and three people were killed.

Nagorno-Karabakh military spokesman David Babaian said the helicopter was shot down while on a training mission and was not involved in a combat operation.

Russia's Interfax news agency said authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh reported that three people aboard the helicopter were killed.

On his Facebook page, Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovannisyan called the downing of the helicopter an 'unprecedented provocation that leads to an escalation in the situation.'

Hovannisyan said Azerbaijani troops were firing on the location where the helicopter crashed.

Hovannisyan called Azerbaijani claims the helicopter attacked Azerbaijani troops 'absurd.'

'The consequences for the Azerbaijani side will be very painful, and all responsibility will rest with the Azeri political leadership,' Hovannisyan wrote.

Hovannisyan told RFE/RL's Armenian Service an investigation of the helicopter wreckage will prove the gunship was not carrying ammunition.

Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for years.

Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people.

Diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict have brought little progress.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian Service, Interfax, and Trend.az

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/armenia-azerbaijan- karabakh-helicopter-down/26687375.html

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