QARAKAND: THE BURIAL OF HOPES FOR PEACE
Journal Regionplus № 40 (204), November 26, 2013
Author: Rizvan HUSEYNOV Baku
Twenty-two years have passed since the tragic deaths of the members of the peacekeeping group of Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan, including prominent officials, deputies, military servicemen and journalists, who became victims of Armenian terrorism.
On 20 November 1991, as a result of a terrorist act committed by Armenian terrorists, a Mi-8 helicopter was shot down by a heat-seeking missile near the village of Qarakand, Xocavand (Martuni) District of Karabakh. Twenty-two people were killed: the helicopter crew and passengers, including prominent Azerbaijani state and government figures and observers from Russia and Kazakhstan who had flown to the NKAO [Nagornyy Karabakh Autonomy Region of Azerbaijan] for a meeting with Karabakh separatist leaders and their chiefs from Armenia to try to reach a peaceful settlement in the escalating Karabakh conflict. Unfortunately, it has still not been specifically revealed as to which of the Armenian bandits committed this bloody act which led to the deaths of worthy representatives of the Azerbaijani people and leading Russian and Kazakh peacekeepers.
The incident of the blowing up of the government helicopter has been raised in the press from time to time and in this article we would like to present a few little-known facts and the reminiscences of witnesses to these events.
