YEREVAN. – Militarist and provocative rhetoric of Azerbaijan as well as numerous gross violations of the ceasefire regime repeatedly occurring throughout the year, Azerbaijan's sabotage attempts on the line of contact and border with Armenia “gained a new momentum”, Armenian Foreign Ministry said in an annual statement.

The mentioned actions in addition to Baku's destructive position and statements distorting the essence of peace talks, as well as consistent rejection of the mediators' proposals hampered progress both on reaching agreement on basic principles and implementation of the world community's calls on confidence building measures.

On November 12 Azerbaijani armed forces shot down a helicopter of NKR Defense Army that was operating a training flight in an unprecedented criminal provocation which claimed  the lives of three young soldiers. Azerbaijani armed forces kept under intense fire the crash site of the helicopter for ten days, not allowing rescuers, representatives of the OSCE and the International Committee of the Red Cross take away the bodies. This was reflected in a joint statement of OSCE Minsk Group on 19 November, which expressed deep concern about the approach of blocking humanitarian mission to the site of the helicopter crash.