The leadership of Azerbaijan bears responsibility for the established new reality in the Karabakh conflict zone, Armenia's Deputy Defense Minister, David Tonoyan, said.
"Before making the decision to employ a new form of ceasefire violation, the leadership of Azerbaijani AF didn't want to be bothered to calculate whether the accompanying damage of attacking the helicopter exceeds anticipated military advantage. By accompanying damage I mean possible actions of Armenian forces in response to the shooting down of the helicopter, and of course–danger of disruption of negotiation process and cancelation of efforts aimed at strengthening the ceasefire. Since large-scale military exercises and air force flights over the edge of contact line by the sides were not a novelty, the leadership of Azerbaijan bears responsibility for the established new reality in the Karabakh conflict zone", - he said.
To recall, 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 NKR State Committee for POWs, Captives and the Missing has requested the ICRC assistance in returning the crewmembers of the downed helicopter. The Azeri officer that shot the helicopter down has been awarded a medal.