YEREVAN. Nov 20 (Interfax) - Armenian Defense Minister David Tonoyan highly praised Russia's role in settling the military-political situation in the region at a meeting with Russian Ambassador in Yerevan Sergei Kopyrkin.
The meeting took place at the Defense Ministry on Thursday, it said.
"Tonoyan highly praised Russia's role and efforts in settling the military-political situation in the region, and he also highly praised the efficiency of Russia's peacekeeping mission in Artsakh [the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh]," the ministry said.
The parties agreed on the importance of the efforts to search for and exchange the bodies of the deceased service members, prisoners of war, and those missing in action, which have been coordinated between the Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Tonoyan once again offered his condolences on the deaths of two crewmembers of a Russian military helicopter downed in Armenian airspace by Azerbaijani forces and handed the Russian ambassador the medals For Combat Service earlier awarded to the Russian pilots by the Armenian president.
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian on November 18 signed decrees on decorating the crew of the downed Russian military helicopter.
The medals For Combat Service were posthumously bestowed on Major Yury Ishchuk and First Lieutenant Roman Fedin. First Lieutenant Vladislav Gryazin, who was injured in the incident, was also decorated by Armenia.
The Azerbaijani forces downed Russia's Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunship in the Armenian airspace, outside of the war zone, at about 6:30 p.m. on November 9, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. The helicopter was escorting an automobile convoy of the 102nd Russian Military Base near the Armenian community of Yeraskh, close to the border of Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan autonomous republic.