Azerbaijan may allow Armenia to recover bodies of crew

(Baku Daily) - Azerbaijan may allow Armenians to recover the bodies of the helicopter crew that was shot down near the Nagorno-Karabakh region on Nov. 12, an official said.

“We will allow if we see it fit,” Firudun Sadiqov, head of a working group at the state commission for POWs, hostages and missing persons, told reporters in Baku.

“Armenians have been begging Andrzej Kasprichik (to help recover the bodies), but he has no authority to do that,” Sadiqov said.

Kasprichik, personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, is in the region to help ease tension.

Azerbaijan used Igla, a portable anti-aircraft missile, to shoot down the helicopter as it tried to attack Azeri positions in Agdam District. 

The serviceman who shot the helicopter was later decorated with a medal for his courage.  

Armenia captured nearly one-fifth of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts, in a war after the Soviet breakup in 1991.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a ceasefire in 1994 but no peace agreement has been signed.

Armenia has continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.