The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army has brilliantly conducted a risky special operation to retrieve the remains of the Armenian pilots from the shelled zone, Lt.-Gen. Vagharshak Harutyunyan, ex-defense minister of Armenia, leader of the National Revival Party, has told ArmInfo.
To note, on November 22, the NKR Defense Army Special Forces retrieved the body of a crewmember and the remains of the two pilots of Mi-24 helicopter that was downed by Azerbaijani forces on 12 November. The necessary parts were also retrieved. Two Azerbaijani servicemen were killed in the course of the special operation. The NKR Defense Army suffered no losses.
"The Defense Minister of Armenia has repeatedly said that Yerevan and Stepanakert are going to resolve this problem in a diplomatic way. We have applied to all international organizations to help us solve the problem with retrieval of the bodies of our servicemen. Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office, personally visited the site of the crime, however, Baku responded to these calls and steps by inhuman and medieval refusal. Before this incident, including the period when I was the defense minister, we often returned the bodies of their servicemen. What we see now is Azerbaijan's degradation to inhuman positions", he stresses.
Harutyunyan emphasizes that the NKR servicemen have taken correct and highly skilled steps and performed the duty of the army and the state to their fellow soldiers. "The downed helicopter was in a neutral zone and the Azeris certainly did everything to prevent our guys from receiving the secret information saved in the helicopter parts. Moreover, they were going to exchange the bodies of our pilots with the captive Azeri raiders. I am convinced that the special operation was conducted brilliantly and these people deserve the deepest respect", he says.
To remind, the Azerbaijani armed forces downed an Armenian Mi-24 while it was conducting a training flight near the Line on Contact on 12 November. Three officers of the NKR Armed Forces, Sergey Sahakyan, Sargis Nazaryan and Azat Sahakyan, were on board. The Azeri officer that shot the helicopter down has been awarded a medal.