Today is the 23rd year of the date of destruction of the Azerbaijani helicopter in the sky over Karabakh, which was carrying a prominent statesman of Azerbaijan and representatives of Russia and Kazakhstan, who arrived in the region for a peacemaking mission. Total 22 people were killed. Civil MI-8 helicopter was shot down near the Armenian village of Garakend in Martuni region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
As a result of operative-investigative activities, it was found that the helicopter was shot down by the Armenian militants.
"In subsequent years, the Armenian side organized more than 30 terrorist attacks on air and ground transportation, including the subway," said in comments the acting head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Hikmet Hajiyev on the occasion of the 23 anniversary of the tragedy.
The destruction of the helicopter on 20 November 1991 undermined international peacekeeping missions and caused the escalation of tension in Karabakh.
On the board of the Mi-8 helicopter were killed the Secretary of State of Azerbaijan Tofig Ismailov, Prosecutor General Ismat Gaibov, state adviser Mohammed Assad, presidential spokesman Osman Mirzayev, Deputy Prime Zulfi Hajiyev, First Deputy Minister of Land Reclamation Qurban Namazaliev, deputies Vali Mammadov and Vagif Jafarov , prosecutor of the Nagorny Karabakh Valery Plavsky, journalists Ali Mustafayev, Fahraddin Shakhbazov and Arif Huseynzadeh, first Deputy Minister of Land Reclamation Qurban Namazaliev, and others.
Another civilian MI-8 helicopter was shot down by the Armenians while approaching the town of Shusha in January 1992, and about 50 people were killed. -06D-
Politics
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The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OPHRD), a joint program of the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has called for the urgent release of activist Rufat Safarov from prison in Azerbaijan. It has launched a campaign in support of the Azerbaijani human rights defender. https://www.omct.org/en/resources/urgent-interventions/arbitrary-detention-and-judicial-harassment-against-rufat-safarov
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This year, the laureate of the annual Nargiz Prize, awarded for efforts in the fight for democracy, was Akif Gurbanov, chairman of the board of the Resplatforma (Platform of the III Republic) movement, who is under arrest.
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The U.S. will prohibit the issuing of visas for nearly a dozen more individuals responsible for undermining democracy in Georgia, bringing the total number to over 100, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
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The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has expressed condolences to the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, following the tragic incident in the city of Magdeburg. "We are deeply shocked by the news of the deaths and injuries resulting from the tragic incident that took place at the Christmas market in Magdeburg," the message reads.
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