Azerbaijan Denounces Armenian Recovery Of Army Wreckage

Armenia's defense ministry claimed on Saturday that the bodies of three pilots, who were killed on Nov. 12 by Azerbaijani armed forces, had been collected in an army operation.



On Nov. 12, Armenian military aircraft opened fire on Azerbaijani army positions in the disputed, Armenian-majority region of Nagorno-Karabakh, located in western Azerbaijan.  



Azerbaijan's defense forces shot down an Armenian helicopter and three crewmembers were killed in the incident, according to Azerbaijan's defense ministry.



Armenia announced that they launched the operation in order to transfer the dead pilots' bodies and collect the helicopter wreckage. 



Armenia also announced that two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed during the operation.



Azerbaijani officials strongly denied those Armenian claims and said that they do not reflect the truth and such claims amount to provocations and lies.



On May 12, 1994 a cease-fire agreement was signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia after two decades of conflict over the disputed territory. 



In February 1988, the regional parliament in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is largely populated by ethnic Armenians, voted to declare its independence from Azerbaijan.



Armenia's parliament voted to recognize that independence, a move that forced the evacuation of over 200,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis from Armenia. 



Thousands of Azerbaijani civilians lost their lives in the resulting conflict.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ankara