Armenia says its fighter jet 'shot down by Turkey'

[sl8]

Source: BBC News

Published1 hour ago

Armenia says one of its fighter jets was shot down by a Turkish jet in a major escalation of the conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The Armenian foreign ministry said the pilot of the Soviet-made SU-25 died after being hit by the Turkish F-16 in Armenian air space.

Turkey, which is backing Azerbaijan in the conflict, has denied the claim.

Nearly 100 people, including civilians, have died in three days of fighting over the disputed mountainous region.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54345622

[Aristus]

1. Well, shit...

I'm sure Trump and Putin are jizzing their pants over the prospect of a shootin' war...

[BeyondThePale]

4. This is hardly amusing.

100 years ago Turkish genocide murdered 1.5 million Armenian civilians. Turkey and Azerbaijan have launched yet another premeditated attack on Armenia. Azerbaijan's leaders have stated that their goal is the extermination of Armenians.

[Igel]

5. Putin's in sort of a hard position here.

He's more protective of Armenia, which means it's another Turk-Russian confrontation. And Armenians are scattered throughout the Russian-speaking areas, at least Southern and Central Russian areas (probably not so much up in the north).

And while the two people are different Orthodoxes, Russia tries to spread its wings over all Orthodoxy. Azeri aren't Xian, by and large.

But Russia's also on decent terms with the Azeri, so he can't side too much with the Armenians without running into Turkish and Azeri difficulties.

Mess with Turkey and Turkey may trigger the mutual defense pact.

Turkey's got his nationalism and xenophobia on, as well as being economically interested in the pipeline that runs not too far from Artsakh (that would be the Armenian name for the area inhabited by Armenians, and I use it for that purpose--not out of allegiance to the Armenian provisional government in the area).

[DFW]

2. And as we all know, Turks would NEVER kill Armenians........... n/t

[Lulu KC]

3. Uh oh n/t

[uriel1972]

6. this vould be very bad

if Putin uses the US as it's proxy to side-step thorny local alliances, it could get very bad indeed.