On Wednesday, November 12, 2014, at approximately 1:45 pm (Yerevan time), the Azerbaijani military shot down an unarmed helicopter on a military training exercise over Nagorno Karabakh, killing all three people on board.
Azerbaijani leaders, within hours of this fatal assault – unprecedented since the 1994 cease-fire – instead of calling for calm or regretting the loss of life, reportedly awarded a military medal to the unit commander who shot down this unarmed aircraft.
This attack is the latest in Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s reckless escalation of incitement and aggression, a pattern of violence that has taken far too many lives, on both sides, and that threatens to drive this region into renewed war.
U.S. policymakers need to give up on the long-ago discredited idea that there is moral parity between the parties. The facts are clear, and they should guide U.S. policy:
— Artsakh is a democracy offering its hand in peace.
— Azerbaijan is a dictatorship marching toward war.
— America stands on the side of democracy and peace.