Armenian Ministry of Defense alleges Turkish airstrikes alongside Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh skies • Dropped plane pilot killed • In Ankara denied reports
Sukhoi 25 aircraft // Photo: AP
The Russian news agency Tas reported today (Tuesday) that a Turkish 16-F plane shot down over the territory of Azerbaijan 25-SU of the Armenian Air Force and the pilot was killed, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense in Yerevan.
According to the Armenian Ministry of Defense, the Turkish fighter jet took off from the Azeri Air Force base in the northern city of Ganja.
It should be noted that the presence of Turkish aircraft at Azeri Air Force bases has not been reported in the past and this is a new development.
Ankara has denied the reports and a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that the incident in question did not take place and that it may have been the Azeris who shot down the Armenian fighter jet.
Baku also denied the reports.
Meanwhile, the fighting on the ground continues to claim victims and surf the battlefields in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Azerbaijani aircraft today bombed a bus near the city of Vardnis in northern Armenia in an undisputed territory between the countries.
One person was killed and several others were injured in the bombing.
Three other villages around the city were also shelled but no casualties were reported.
The Ministry of Defense of the Armenian separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh region reported earlier that 12 Azeri tanks had been destroyed by missile fire during fighting in the northern part of the region.
Earlier, the region's Defense Ministry released the names of 26 of its fighters killed during the current round of fighting, a rare confession by one of the fighting sides in its casualties.
Former Armenian President Robert Kucharian arrived with some of his army's retired officials at Stepanakrat, the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The purpose of the visit is to provide assistance to Armenians living in the region due to the outbreak of hostilities on the border with Azerbaijan, the Interfax news agency announced based on government sources in the unrecognized republic.
Kucharian, who served as Armenia's second president, was also head of the Nagorno - Karabakh region during the first war there in the 1990s.
Along with him came Crabbach's former defense minister and Armenia's Siran Ognian, and former Armenian chief of staff Yuri Khachaturov, who took part in the first war in the region and intend to share Armenian forces' military experience.
