It has been 2 years since crash of Mi-24 helicopter
On November 12, 2014 the NKR DA military Mi-24 helicopter was shot down by the Azerbaijani armed forces.
After the crash of the helicopter, the NKR DA and the RA MoD issued a statement, according to which the helicopter in Artsakh had been participating in the RA and the NKR armed forces’ “Unity-2014” joint operative-strategic military trainings. The Azerbaijani side, though, claimed that the Armenian helicopter had attacked their posts, after which they opened fire and shot down it. After the adversary’s statement the video of the helicopter’s crash was disseminated on the internet. The video clearly showed that the statement of the Azerbaijani side didn’t correspond to reality.
The video clearly displayed that two Armenian helicopters didn’t pose a threat to the Azerbaijani posts, though the Azerbaijani serviceman Ilkin Muradov shot down one of the helicopters with “Igla” missile. Examining the maximum speed and distance of “Igla” missile, the specialists proved that the helicopter hadn’t crossed the Azerbaijani border and had been in a neutral zone.
As a result of the crash of Mi-24 helicopter, all the members of the staff were killed- Major Sergey Sahakyan, Senior Lieutenant Sargis Nazaryan and Lieutenant Azat Sahakyan.
After the incident the Azerbaijani side for about ten days was shelling the area, where the helicopter fell down, so that the Armenian side couldn’t take the bodies of the killed pilots out of the area. Though, on November 22, as a result of the actions carried out by the NKR DA special squads, bodies of the deceased pilots and the helicopter’s black boxes were taken out of the area.
After the crash of Mi-24 helicopter, a number of international structures called for peace between two sides, and a number of Azerbaijani officials noted in their official statements that in case of further provocations by the Armenian side, they would continue taking steps and shooting down helicopters.
As of now the situation on the border escalates from time to time; the Azerbaijani side doesn’t stop provocations.
The recent messages prove that in the northeastern (Yarymja) and the northern (Talish) directions of the Line of Contact, the Azerbaijani armed forces use mortars, rifle weapons, including “Black arrow” and “Istiglal” large-caliber sniper rifles.
