Azerbaijan's unprecedented provocation on its border with Nagorno-Karabakh has escalated the situation, Spokesman of Armenia's Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan said in Facebook.
"The Azeris' allegations that the Armenian helicopters attacked their positions and they just counteracted are senseless as the examination of the debris will show that the helicopters were not armed. The Azeris were still firing when the helicopter fell so we were not able to approach the pilots," Hovhannisyan said.
He noted that the consequences of this incident will be very painful for Azerbaijan and will weigh upon the conscience of its military- political leadership.
Hovhannisyan said that the commander of the helicopter was Major Sergey Sahakyan. He said that they will shortly inform what has happened to the crew.
A helicopter MI-24 of the NKR Armed Forces was shot down today at about 1:45 PM local time in the air space of the eastern part of the line of contact between the armed forces of Karabakh and Azerbaijan during the training flight, as a result of breaking of the ceasefire regime by the Azerbaijani party. As press-service of the NKR Defense Army reported, the territory, where the helicopter was shot down, is directly close to the line of contact. The adversary goes on intensively firing towards the place where the incident happened. The details are being clarified.