The Minister of National Defense of Turkey, Ismet Yilmaz, commented on the Armenian helicopter which Azerbaijan had shot down, and stressed that the Armenian side is speaking about taking retaliatory actions.     

Speaking at the Turkish parliament, Yilmaz reflected on the security of Turkey and commented on the downed Armenian helicopter, Haberturk website of Turkey informed. 

“Azerbaijan has shot down an Armenian helicopter. The Armenian officials have stated that they will respond to this action. Believe [me], you can’t know what will happen in this region tomorrow,” Yilmaz said.     

The Turkish minister also highlighted that the countries, which are engaged in finding a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, need to pay attention to this.    

The Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire and shot down a Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (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.   

The OSCE Minsk Group, Armenia MFA, European Union, and United Nations representatives already have condemned this incident.    

In addition, NKR has petitioned to the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), with a request to help determine the fate of the three crew members of this helicopter.