The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army’s special military operations to recover the dead bodies of the downed Armenian helicopter’s crew constituted a brilliantly organized act deserving an international attention, says a spokesperson of Armenia’s Ministry of Defense. report by tert.am

“Against the backdrop of the extremely large-scale counteractions by the adversary in the form of fire and other [attacks], these operations were unprecedented in character and complexity. The performance was simply brilliant in light of the non-trivial losses by the adversary, who had prepared a trap. In the couple of few days to come, we will be hearing the names of those who may naturally have died in different casualties. The Nagorno-Karabakh special forces demonstrated a striking result on their [professional] holiday. Glory to them! It was an internationally praiseworthy brilliant act silencing the black cannons,” Artsrun Hovhannisyan wrote in Facebook.

The Armed Forces of Nagorno-Karabak had to launch special operations on Saturday to access the crash site of the downed MI-24 helicopter for pulling out the crewmembers’ bodies.

Speaking to Tert.am, the Defense Army’s Commander Movses Hakobyan said he expects the operations to raise the military’s efficiency. “A soldier of the Nagorno-Karabakh army is always in a high fighting spirit,” he said.

Tert.am’s sources say that the defense authorities of the two Armenian republics are now considering the place and the procedures of the martyred crewmembers’ funeral.

The special operations by the Nagorno-Karabakh Armed Forces were a reaction to the calls voiced by the OSCE Minsk Group in a recent statement, said Styopa Safaryan, the president of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA).

“The situation is very much similar to the early-1990’s, with the international community repeatedly making calls for ensuring a humanitarian corridor for the Nagorno-Karabakh people or ceasing the military operations,” he told Tert.am, citing a corresponding resolution by the UN Security Council.

The pilots on board the crashed helicopter were Major Sergey Sahakyan, Senior lieutenant Sargis Nazaryan and Lieutenant Azat Sahakyan. All three have been honored with posthumous awards.