Armenia accuses Turkey of downing warplane, as fighting with Azerbaijan continues
- Both sides reject peace talks as Nagorno-Karabakh dispute threatens to explode into all-out war
- UN Security Council condemns use of force and backs call by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for immediate halt to clashes
Armenia said Tuesday that a Turkish fighter jet had shot down one of its warplanes during heavy fighting with Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan, but Ankara fiercely denied the claim.
Direct Turkish military action against Armenia would mark a major escalation after three days of heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh.
And the UN Security Council called on both sides for an immediate end to the fighting.
The two sides have defied calls for a ceasefire over Karabakh - an ethnic-Armenian enclave that broke from Azerbaijan in the 1990s - and are both claiming to have inflicted heavy losses on opposing forces.
Ankara has backed Azerbaijan in the conflict and on Tuesday the Armenian defence ministry said a Turkish F-16 flying in support of Baku’s forces had downed an Armenian SU-25 warplane.
Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said the Turkish jet was supporting Azerbaijani aviation bombing civilian settlements in Armenia when it shot down the Armenian plane, killing the pilot.