Armenian foreign ministry calls Baku's action criminal provocation

YEREVAN, November 13. /ARKA/. Armenia's foreign ministry issued a statement on Wednesday condemning Azerbaijani armed forces for shooting down a helicopter of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's army during a training flight. «We strongly condemn the shooting down by the Azerbaijani armed forces of MI-24 helicopter of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army during a training flight,» the ministry says in its statement. The ministry says that before and after every high-level meeting on the resolution of the issue, Baku is resorting to new provocations to undermine the negotiation process, the efforts of Armenia and the international community aimed at exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict. «The Azerbaijani side is grossly violating the commitments on the peaceful resolution of the conflict reached during the recent summits. Such a criminal provocation demonstrates that Baku is not only ignoring the appeals of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, the international community on non-use of force, consolidation of ceasefire, implementation of confidence-building measures, but is acting contrary to them bearing full responsibility for the escalation of the situation.» Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan. On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan. Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions adjacent to it. Some 30,000 people were killed in this war and about one million people fled their homes. On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations. Since 1992, talks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France. -0---