Interfax, Russia
Nov 22 2014
France promises Armenia to help recover bodies of crewmembers of
helicopter downed by Azerbaijan
YEREVAN. Nov 22
France will render all assistance it can so that the bodies of the
crewmembers of a Mi-24 helicopter belonging to the self-proclaimed
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s air force downed by Azerbaijan on November
12 could be recovered from the crash site, French Ambassador to
Armenia Jean-Francois Charpentier said in a statement the embassy
shared with Interfax.
The statement says that, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group for
settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, France would wish that the
bodies of the three helicopter crewmembers should be handed to Armenia
for humanitarian reasons.
According to the Azeri Defense Ministry, an Armenian military
helicopter Mi-24 had taken an attack course and tried to attack Azeri
armed forces’ positions 1,700 meters northeast of the village of
Kengerli, the Agdam district, on November 12, after which Azeri forces
had to return fire and destroyed the helicopter.
Armenian official sources reported earlier that the Azeri armed forces
had shot down a Mi-24 helicopter belonging to the Nagorno-Karabakh
armed forces while the latter was on a training flight during joint
Armenian-Nagorno-Karabakh exercises Unity 2014. Preliminary findings
indicate that the three crewmembers were killed. Armenian rescue
workers were unable to approach the crash site as Azeri armed forces
continued to shell the area.
Armenian Defense Minister Seiran Oganian had said on Thursday that
Azerbaijan was preparing to destroy the helicopter.
“This violates all existing norms. No doubt, the Azeri armed forces
were put on alert during the exercises in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the
order on destroying the helicopter had been issued beforehand,”
Oganian told journalists.
“Our efforts are directed at resolving the problem in a diplomatic
way. Alternative options always exist, but we are trying so far to
resolve it in a diplomatic way,” Oganian said.
va
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress