Official Baku does not give the OSCE Mission security guarantees to be able to conduct an examination at the crash site of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR; Artsakh) Air Force helicopter.
Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, told about the aforesaid to Artsakh Public Television.
“We were trying to conduct an OSCE monitoring at the crash site of the helicopter that was shot on the Line of Contact. But Baku gave the OSCE delegation no security guarantee in that area.
“Any monitoring is planned in advance. The petition to hold a monitoring was submitted before the incident with the helicopter.
“Naturally, after the tragedy, I wanted to conduct a monitoring at the crash site of the helicopter. But my associate in Azerbaijan responded that the situation is tense in that area, [and therefore] it is impossible to provide security guarantees,” Kasprzyk stated.
He added that this is why, “It was decided to conduct monitoring according to the plan.”
The OSCE official, however, informed that negotiations are underway to find ways to approach the downed helicopter as soon as possible.
As per Andrzej Kasprzyk, the matter will be discussed this week in Azerbaijan.
The Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire and shot down an NKR Air Force helicopter on November 12. The chopper was downed during a training flight, and it crashed nearby the Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact. As a result, three pilots are believed to have been killed: the commander of the helicopter, Major Sergey Sahakyan, as well as Senior Lieutenant Sargis Nazaryan and Lieutenant Azat Sahakyan. Information was disseminated some time thereafter, however, that a member of the helicopter crew may still be alive. There were no weapons in the chopper. The adversary, on the other hand, continues to fire intensive shots toward the crash site, thus, not allowing access to the area.
