STEPANAKERT. - The source from the military command revealed to the Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter some secret details about the special operation conducted by Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) Armed Forces to rescue the bodies of Armenian pilots of helicopter destroyed by Azeris in violation of the ceasefire.
According to the source, the counterterrorism and special operations units of the Artsakh Armed Forces prepared for the operation for several days, as the military experts planned and examined all details in advance. Azerbaijani side expected that Armenians will not leave their people and will attempt to rescue the bodies of Armenian pilots from the helicopter crash site, so Azeris prepared a trap near the helicopter, where they supposed to kill Armenian rescuers. However, Armenians predicted that in advance and first Artsakh counterterrorism and special operations forces destroyed the trap set by Azeris. During the operation, Artsakh units eliminated the Azeri soldier who kept the spotlight over the crash site and another Azerbaijani military standing next to him. The entire operation and the elimination of combat soldiers was done so quiet and fine that the Azerbaijani sentinel next to the site did not hear anything.
After the elimination of the combat soldiers, Artsakh counterterrorism and rescue units approached the helicopter crash site and rescued the remains of three Armenian military servicemen. According to the source, the shot helicopter split in two parts, and only one part of it was burnt. The remains of two soldiers were partially burnt as well, while the body of the third Armenian serviceman was preserved.
The Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire and shot down Artsakh Air Force helicopter on Nov. 12. The chopper was downed during a training flight, and it crashed very close to the Karabakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact. As a result, three pilots were killed: the commander of the helicopter, Major Sergey Sahakyan, as well as Lt. Senior Sargis Nazaryan and Lt. Azat Sahakyan.The adversary, on the other hand, was firing intensive shots toward the crash site, thus, not allowing access to the area. However, the remains of the three Armenian military servicemen and some necessary parts of the chopper were removed from the helicopter’s crash site through a special operation by the Artsakh.
