Twenty-seven years pass since the Azerbaijani MI-8 military helicopter was shot down by the Armenian security forces near the Garakend village of Azerbaijan’s Khojavand district on November 20, 1991.
Representatives of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Russia and Armenia were in the helicopter en route to Azerbaijan's Khankendi city. The representatives were going to discuss the situation around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and witness the developments regarding the conflict. The helicopter was shot down at 14:42. The attack on the helicopter disrupted the ongoing peace talks.
A total of 22 people in the helicopter, including high-ranking Azerbaijani, Russian and Kazakh officials, journalists and MPs, were killed as a result of the crash: Azerbaijan’s State Secretary Tofig Ismayilov, State Prosecutor General Ismat Gayibov, State Adviser and former Interior Minister Mahammad Asadov, MPs Vagif Jafarov and Vali Mammadov, Deputy Prime Minister Zulfi Hajiyev, Department Head at the Office of the Azerbaijani President, journalist Osman Mirzayev, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan Sanlal Serikov, Azerbaijani TV journalist Ali Mustafayev, Deputy Prime Minister Gurban Namazaliyev, Public Prosecutor of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast Igor Plavski, head of Ministry of Internal Affairs of NKAO Vladimir Kovalyov, head of department of NKAO National Security Ministry Sergey Ivanov, commandant for Emergency Situations of NKAO Nikolay Jinkin, police major general Mikhail Lukashov, police lieutenant colonel Oleg Kocherev, aide to Secretary of State Rafig Mammadov, lights technician at Azerbaijani State TV Arif Huseynzade, cameraman at Azerbaijani State TV Fakhraddin Shahbazov, member of the helicopter crew Vyacheslav Kotov, member of the helicopter crew Gennadiy Domov, member of the helicopter crew Dmitry Yarovenko.
