Mil-Mi-8 military helicopter shot down near Xocavənd in 1991

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The downing of the Mil-Mi-8 military helicopter near the city of Xocavend in 1991 , also known as the "Garakend Tragedy" ( Azerbaijani Qarakənd faciəsi ) occurred on November 20, 1991 in the village of Garakend not far from the Azerbaijani city of Xocavənd in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. All 22 occupants (19 passengers and 3 crew members) lost their lives.

overview

With the escalation of armed clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani military units in Nagorno-Karabakh, Boris Yeltsin and Nursultan Nazarbayev, directly mediated by Boris Yeltsin and Nursultan Nazarbayev, passed the so-called Zheleznovodsk communique (declaration) to initiate a peace process between the warring parties. To this end, the Russian President held talks in Baku , Gəncə , Stepanakert (Xankəndi) and Yerevan in September 1991 . Among other things, the agreement provided for the dispatch of an observer mission to the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region , which should also include Russian and Kazakh representatives.

Launch

A Mil Mi-8, the type of helicopter that was shot down

With the renewed outbreak of violence in Xocavənd in early November 1991, the peace talks came to a standstill. In order to get an idea of ​​the situation in the city, an observer mission made up of senior Azerbaijani, Russian and Kazakh state officials and some journalists went from Agdam to Xocavənd in a Mil-Mi-8 military helicopter on November 20 . At 14:42 local time, the USSR Inner Forces aircraft was shot down three kilometers west of Xocavend in the village of Garakend with a ZSU-23-4 self-propelled gun and a 2K12-Kub anti-aircraft missile system.

Investigations

The assurances of the Armenian side that the helicopter allegedly hit a rock in the fog and crashed (this version was initially represented by the Russian news agency TASS , on which Armenia also relied), was rejected by the commander of the internal forces of the USSR, Vasily Savin . After the inspection of the crash site by investigators from the Soviet Interior Ministry, the shooting down of the flying machine with a ground-based missile system was confirmed.

The National Security Ministry of the Republic of Azerbaijan described the shooting as an act of terrorism. The country was gripped by a new wave of indignation and protests. The incumbent President Ayaz Mutallibov was asked to either restore order in Nagorno-Karabakh or to resign. After days of rallies, the Azerbaijani government decided on November 26, 1991 to impose martial law on the breakaway territory and to put all peace negotiations with Armenia on hold. The next day, the National Assembly of Azerbaijan revoked Nagorno-Karabakh's autonomous status by decree and decided to restore direct rule over the region. In addition, the city of Stepanakert was renamed Xankəndi.

List of those killed

  • Tofik Izmailov - State Secretary of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • Ismat Gajibov - Attorney General of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • Sulphi Hajjev - Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • Osman Mirsayev - journalist, head of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • Mahammad Azadov - Minister of Interior of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • Vagif Jafarov - Member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan
  • Vali Mammadov - Member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan
  • Gurban Namasalijew - First Deputy Minister for Improvement and Water Management of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • Igor Plawski - Prosecutor of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (AGB)
  • Vladimir Kovalyov - major general , head of the internal affairs department of the AGB
  • Sergei Ivanov - Head of Department in the National Security Ministry of the AGB
  • Nikolai Schinkin - major general, deputy commander of the Transcaucasian Military Circle of Internal Troops and military commander of the AGB
  • Sanlal Serikov - Deputy Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Kazakhstan
  • Mikhail Lukashov - Major General of the Russian Interior Ministry
  • Oleg Kocherev - Lieutenant General of the Russian Interior Ministry
  • Ali Mustafayev - journalist for the Azerbaijani state television broadcaster AzTV
  • Rafig Mammadov - Advisor to the State Secretary of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  • Arif Husejnsadeh - lighting technician, AzTV
  • Fachraddin Shahbasov - cameraman, AzTV
  • Vyacheslav Kotov - lieutenant , chief of the flight crew
  • Gennady Domov - Major , member of the flight crew
  • Dmitri Yarovenko - sergeant , member of the flight crew

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ G. Reza Sabri-Tabrizi: Azerbaijan and Armenian Conflict and Coexistence . Ed .: Anoushiravan Ehteshami: From the Gulf to Central Asia: Players in the New Great Game. University of Exeter Press, Exeter, United Kingdom 1994, ISBN 0-85989-430-4 , pp. 150 .
  2. ↑ Kirsten Eichensehr, W. Michael Reisman: Stopping Wars and Making Peace: Studies in International Intervention . Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands 1998, ISBN 90-04-17855-4 , pp. 55 .
  3. ↑ Michael P. Croissant: The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict: causes and implications . Praeger Publishers, Westport, Connecticut, US 1998, ISBN 0-275-96241-5 , pp. 45 .
  4. ↑ В. Белых: Авиакатастрофа в Нагорном Карабахе: Новые версии . Ed .: Газета Известия. No. 278 , November 22, 1991, pp. 1 .
  5. ↑ Журнал «Власть» (Ed.): В Азербайджане сбит вертолет с VIP на борту . No. 45 (89) . Издательский дом "Коммерсантъ", November 25, 1991.
  6. ↑ Карабах: хронология конфликта. BBC News, August 29, 2005, accessed February 13, 2019 (Russian).
  7. ↑ Гибель Ми-8 ВВ МВД СССР бортовой № 72 у села Каракенд 20.11.1991. Сайт ветеранов БД на территории НКАО, April 4, 2016, accessed February 13, 2019 (Russian).