Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan tries hardest to conceal their losses after
Armenia's asymmetric retaliation to the recently downed helicopter, ArmInfo's
source in the security agencies says.
As Armenia shows restraint, Baku tries to save its
image after downing an Armenian helicopter on the line of contact of the
Nagorny Karabakh and Azerbaijani forces.
"Instead of admitting its mistakes and telling,
at least, its society the truth about that incident, the senseless deaths of
its soldiers, the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan keeps distorting the
statements of Armenian officials. In particular, Spokesperson, Colonel Vagif
Dargyakhli, was displeased with how Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan
described the retaliation for the downed helicopter. The minister said that the details of the operation cannot be
made public so far, but the people will be informed about them when it is
time," the source says.
The ideas of "military secrecy" and
"non-disclosure of important data," as well as transparent activity
of the national armed forces are, probably, strange to the Azerbaijan army that
lacks military traditions. To distract
the public attention from the real death toll in the Azerbaijani army,
Dargyakhli tried to distort the facts and even said that the Armenian defense
minister made the above statement at the final discussions for 2014. In fact,
there were no final discussions, the minister made that statement to reporters.
"The response by the Baku officials once again
proves that there was retaliation and it was asymmetric. They are well aware of the outcomes of that
retaliation, as their own media is flooded with the reports of 'accidents.' In
Baku they will never admit that they failed to force their scenario upon the
Armenian party and are now reluctant to pay for their behavior," the source
says.
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. On 22 November, the NKR Defense
Army Special Forces recovered 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 wreckage was recovered too. Two Azerbaijani militaries
were killed in the course of the special operation. The NKR Defense Army
suffered no losses.