A Turkish F-16 fighter jet has shot down an Armenian Air Force Su-25, Yerevan has announced, three days after a military conflict between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan broke out.
Officials in Yerevan said the incident took place in Armenian airspace and that the pilot of the Su-25 pilot 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 deploys its American-built F-16 fighter jets in support of the Azeri offensive.
The Azeri senior defense officials on Monday dismissed as “disinformation” reports that Turkish F-16 fighters were supporting Azerbaijani troops.
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 be illegally occupied by Yerevan. 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.
Erdogan after taking actions in Syria, Libya, the Mediterranean, now appears to have taken on Armenia as well… all in a bid it seems to revive the Ottoman Empire.
