Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who is paying a working visit to Basel, met with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs - Ambassadors Igor Popov, James Warlick, Pierre Andrieu and Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Dec 3, foreign ministry press service reported.
At the meeting, the Armenia official called the Co-Chairs attention to intensification of Azeri bellicose rhetoric in the last few weeks, statements distorting the essence of Karabakh negotiations, gross violations of ceasefire on the border with Armenia and the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh, which resulted in a loss of lives, the situation caused by the shooting down of the helicopter of the Nagorno Karabakh’s defense army during a training flight.
The sides also continued the discussions on moving forward the process of peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
Nalbandian reiterated Armenia’s readiness to continue joint efforts with the Co-Chairs towards peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue.
Mi-24 helicopter belonging to the Nagorno Karabakh army was shot during a training flight as result of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani armed forces on Nov 12, at about 1pm local time. The attack took place not far from the line of contact.
The NKR State Commission on prisoners of war, hostages and the missing persons appealed to the International Committee of Red Cross mission in the NKR with regards to the fate of the crewmembers, one of whom could possibly survive the crash. However, Azerbaijan continued to keep the site under fire.
As a result of a special operation on Nov 21 night, NKR armed forces retrieved the body of one crew member, the remains of two pilots and some helicopter wreckage.
