Armenia reports loss of SU-25 attack aircraft

A SU-25 attack aircraft of the Armenian air force was shot down by a Turkish F-16 multirole fighter, and the pilot of the SU-25 did not survive, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Armenia reports today. The Turkish authorities denied the above information, while the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan stated that the country's air forces had no F-16 fighters.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 27, the hostilities broke out in the Karabakh conflict zone. The martial law is in force in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan. Today, the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan has reported about the intense combat actions in the Karabakh conflict zone. Furthermore, according to the Azerbaijani side, at 7:30 a.m., an artillery shelling attack on combat positions in the Dashkesan District was launched from the territory of the Vardenis District of Armenia. Armenia called the claim about the shelling attack on the Dashkesan District a lie.

The Armenian military attack aircraft was shot down during an air attack by an Azerbaijani SU-25 aircraft and a Turkish unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on the city of Vardenis and infantry units of the Armenian armed forces, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Shushan Stepanyan, the press secretary of the Armenian MoD.

According to Shushan Stepanyan, the air attack was supported by Turkish F-16 multirole fighters, which took off from the Azerbaijani "Dalyar" and "Ganja" airports. "During the air battle, a Turkish fighter shot down the Armenian attack aircraft. Unfortunately, the pilot did not survive. According to the data obtained from the tracking equipment, the Turkish F-16 fighter was at a depth of 60 kilometres and at an altitude of 8200 meters," reported Shushan Stepanyan.

Turkey has denied the claims that its fighter shot down the Armenian attack aircraft. According to Fahrettin Altun, the director of communications at the Turkish presidential administration, the claims about the air battle "are completely wrong," the RIA "Novosti" reports with reference to Bloomberg.

In turn, the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan stated that the country's air forces had no F-16 fighters.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 29, 2020 at 06:01 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.