Armenia publishes photos of wreckage it says is SU-25 warplane shot down by Turkish F-16 jet

Duvar English - Reuters

Armenia posted pictures on an online government platform on Sept. 30 of the wreckage of a plane it said was a SU-25 warplane shot down by a Turkish fighter jet on Sept 29.

Turkey and Azerbaijan have denied Yerevan's claim that a Turkish F-16 fighter jet shot down the Armenian plane, killing the pilot. On Sept. 30 Armenia's defense ministry named the pilot as Major Valeri Danelin.

An aide to Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said on the same day that two Armenian SU-25 fighter jets were destroyed on Sept. 29 after crashing into a mountain, and accused Yerevan of lying about one of its planes being shot down.

"Both planes crashed into a mountain and exploded and were destroyed. This shows the Armenian military leadership is not providing accurate information to its citizens and the public," presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev said.

Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces fought new clashes on Sept. 30 in the biggest eruption of their decades-old conflict since the mid-1990s, and France and Turkey traded recriminations as international tensions mounted.

Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh said there were attacks from both sides along the line of contact that divides them. Dozens have been reported killed and hundreds wounded in fighting that began on Sept. 27 and has spread far beyond the enclave's borders, threatening to spill into all-out war between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The fighting has increased concerns about stability in the South Caucasus region, a corridor for pipelines carrying oil and gas to world markets, and raised fears that regional powers Russia and Turkey could be drawn in.

Some of Turkey's NATO allies are increasingly alarmed by Ankara's stance on Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region inside Turkey's close ally Azerbaijan that is run by ethnic Armenians but is not recognised by any country as an independent republic.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sept. 28 Azerbaijan must take matters into its own hands and that Turkey would stand with it "with all its resources and heart."

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu reiterated Ankara's backing on Sept. 30, saying Turkey would "do what is necessary" when asked whether it would offer military support if Azerbaijan requested it.

Çavuşoğlu criticized France, which has many citizens of Armenian ancestry, saying French solidarity with Armenia amounted to supporting Armenian occupation in Azerbaijan.

French President Emmanuel Macron hit back while visiting fellow NATO member Latvia.

Macron said France was extremely concerned by "warlike messages from Turkey "which essentially remove any of Azerbaijan's inhibitions in reconquering Nagorno-Karabakh. And that we won't accept."