Turkish F-16 warplane shoots down Armenian SU-25 fighter jet
A Turkish F-16 fighter has shot down an Armenian Air Force Su-25, Yerevan has announced. It comes three days after a military conflict between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan broke out over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Officials in Yerevan said the incident took place in Armenian airspace and that the pilot of the Soviet-designed Su-25 was killed.
The attack comes hours after Ankara said that it would help Azerbaijan repel “
Armenian aggression,” offering both diplomatic and military assistance. Armenia said earlier that it was prepared to use Russian-made Iskander ballistic missiles in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region if Turkey - a member of the US-led NATO bloc - deploys its American-built F-16 fighter jets in support of the Azeri offensive.
A spokesman for Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied Yerevan’s claim to Bloomberg. Azerbaijan’s defense ministry has also denied that a Turkish F-16 jet has shot down an Armenian warplane.
Azeri senior defense officials on Monday dismissed as “
disinformation” reports that Turkish F-16 fighters were supporting Azerbaijani troops.
Also on Monday, the leader of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Arayik Harutyunyan, alleged that local forces had shot down what he said was a Turkish F-16. Vagif Dargyahly, a spokesman for Azerbaijan's defense ministry
dismissed his claim, describing it as
“lies and provocation,” and adding
“you can’t destroy what doesn’t exist.”
The government of Armenia claimed that the Turkish F-16 took off from an airbase inside Azerbaijan.
Fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan broke out on Sunday, after Azeri and ethnic Armenian soldiers exchanged fire. The region of Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but is populated by ethnic Armenians. Baku considers the enclave to has been illegally occupied by Yerevan, since a 1988-1994 war.
Both sides have accused one another of killing civilians. The longtime rivals have also engaged in a propaganda war, posting videos allegedly showing military hardware that they destroyed on the battlefield.
Baku has repeatedly argued that Turkey is not involved in any hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh. However, officials in Ankara have publicly supported the Azeri cause, pledging
“full support” and calling on Yerevan to vacate the
“occupied” lands.