The wreckage of the Armenian SU-25 fighter jet shot down by a Turkish F-16

Official Yerevan on Wednesday warned that Turkey’s continued provocations, through its armed forces, seriously undermines the security of the entire region, saying Turkish forces and military hardware never left Azerbaijan after the two-week military drills in late July.

Below is the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s statement.

On September 29, an F-16 fighter plane of the Turkish Air Forces, based in the Ganja airport of Azerbaijan, downed an Armenian Armed Forces SU-25 fighter jet—within the airspace of the Republic of Armenia in Vardenis region—which was carrying out a combat mission aimed at repelling Azerbaijani attacks on military and civilian objects. Major Valeri Danelian, pilot of the Armed Forces of Armenia, was killed.

This is not the first incident involving the Turkish air force. Since coming to Azerbaijan, the Turkish air force has been carrying out provocative flights along the line of contact between Artsakh and Azerbaijan. During the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan, they in fact have been providing air support to the combat units of the Azerbaijani army. Notably, provocative flights by Turkey have been carried out along the Armenian-Turkish border as well, on certain instances crossing and violating the airspace of Armenia. On September 27, in the same section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, a Turkish F-16 airplane violated the Armenia air space and launched missiles at the Vardenis region.

The Turkish air force arrived in Azerbaijan during the large-scale Turkish-Azerbaijani military drills held from July 29 to August 13. Since then, it has not withdrawn from Azerbaijan.

The provocative actions of the Turkish armed forces seriously undermine the regional security and hinder the efforts of the international community to cease the hostilities.

The international community has called on external forces to refrain from escalating the conflict, and Turkey should heed these calls.

We strongly condemn Turkey’s provocative actions and demand the immediate withdrawal of the