Karabakh Defense Army Helicopter Shot Down by Azerbaijan, Confirmed Deaths

A helicopter of the Karabakh Defense Army was shot down while conducting training flights along the Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact on November 12 at about 1:45 p.m.

According to the press office of the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Ministry, the incident took place very close to the Line of Contact. Gunfire from the Azerbaijani side has been continuing near the scene of the incident.

Armenia’s defense ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that the shooting down of the helicopter was an ‘unprecedented provocation.’ Hovhannisyan went on to say: “Accusations by the Azerbaijani side that Armenian helicopters were attacking their positions and that they simply responded are unreasonable. Investigation of the debris will confirm that the helicopter was unarmed. Azerbaijani forces continued the escalation of the situation by continuing to shoot after the helicopter was brought down. Moreover, rounds shot by the Azerbaijani side was preventing us from reaching the pilot. The result of this unprecedented escalation will be very painful for Azerbaijan and will remain on Azerbaijan’s military conscience. The commander in charge of the helicopter was Major Sergey Sahakyan. We will inform the public about the fate of the rest of the crew.”

Three people  have been confirmed to have died during the shooting.

Artak Beglaryan, the spokesperson of the Prime Minister of Nagorno Karabakh confirmed the deaths on his Twitter page.

He said that Baku had not learned lessons from this past August which saw the worst violence along the border since the 1994 ceasefire that brought the Karabakh War to a tenuous end.

Spokesperson of the NKR Defense Minister Senor Hasratyan told CivilNet that they could not currently comment on the incident.