Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Eleni Theocharous, who is also Head of the European Union (EU)-Armenia Friendship Group of the Parliament, has released a statement condemning Azerbaijan’s shooting down of an Armenian military helicopter. 

“The EU should organise an ad hog mission to examine what happened on the ground. With this statement, I feel the obligation to condemn a provocative action taken by the Azeri Military Forces, on November 12, 2014, against innocent people who have been probably  lost their lives. In fact, the Azeri Military Forces shot down an unarmed helicopter of the Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR) Defense Army while it was on a training flight. The fate of the crew members remains unknown because of the Azerbaijan's continued shootings and therefore the rescue operation seems to be very complicated. This incident is the most serious one since the Cease-Fire Agreement signed in 1994 by Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia.

“I have already sent a letter to the President of the European Commission Jan Claude Junker and to other Commissioners in which I highlighted the facts of the incident. Furthermore, I proposed that the EU should organise an ad hoc mission to examine on the ground what really happened. What is evident, for the time being, is that the government of Azerbaijan has violated the cease-fire and three innocent people have rather lost their lives. The EU should condemn this action and support the efforts for the solution of the problem on the basis of the right of self- determination (article 1 paragraph 2 of the UN Charter),” Theocharous’ statement reads.

The Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire and shot down an NKR Air Force helicopter on Wednesday. The chopper was downed during a training flight, and nearby the eastern sector of 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, and 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 The adversary, on the other hand, continues to intensively fire shots toward the crash site not allowing the Karabakh side access to the area.