YEREVAN, ARMENIA — The Turkish government has denied claims by the Armenian defense ministry that one of its F-16s shot down an Armenian warplane, Reuters reports, citing Turkey's communications director Fahrettin Altun.<br /><br />Fighting erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Sunday, Sept. 27 over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Nagorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians backed by the Armenian government since the 1988-94 war between the two former Soviet republics. Armenia also controls Azeri territory connecting the region to Armenia.<br /><br />On Tuesday, Sept. 29, an Armenian defence ministry spokeswoman said a Turkish F-16 jet shot down an Armenian Su-25 ground attack plane 60 kilometers inside Armenia proper, killing its pilot. The Drive's War Zone blog reports that Armenia did not provide substantial evidence of the loss of an Su-25 or the presence of a Turkish F-16 in the area.<br /><br />The War Zone cited speculation that one of Azerbaijan's MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jets may have shot the Su-25 down. Azerbaijan says it does not possess F-16s.<br /><br />The news raises fears that other regional powers such as Russia could become involved in the conflict."<br /><br />The War Zone reports that Armenian officials have warned intervention by Turkish forces could trigger the use of Russian-supplied Iskander-E short-range ballistic missiles against targets in Azerbaijan.
