YEREVAN. – Armenia’s opposition Heritage Party Spokesperson Davit Sanasaryan, who is also a member of the opposition “Barev [Hello], Yerevan” faction at the capital city Yerevan Council, is continuing his hunger strike outside the OSCE Office in Yerevan. 

Sanasaryan had commenced his hunger strike on Monday, and with a demand for concrete steps for the return of the three pilots of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Air Force helicopter which Azerbaijan had shot down.      

The hunger striker is still in good health, and he stated that he will continue the hunger strike until his demand is met.    

“The boys [i.e., the pilots] will be brought out of there, but time will tell at what the cost. The objective of what I say and do is that this shall not be done by way of hostilities, [and] that the boys be brought out of there peacefully. And as long as they are there, I’m here,” Sanasaryan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Even though Ambassador Andrey Sorokin, the Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, had met with Sanasaryan on Wednesday and assured him that they are attempting to find a solution to this matter through diplomatic means, the hunger striker stated that he sees no positive development in terms of the fulfillment of his demand.      

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.