Armenia accuses Turkey of downing jet; Ankara denies

YEREVAN: Armenia said Tuesday that a Turkish fighter jet had shot down one of its warplanes during heavy fighting with Turkey´s ally Azerbaijan, but Ankara fiercely denied the claim.

Direct Turkish military action against Armenia would mark a major escalation after three days of heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh.

Ankara has backed Azerbaijan in the conflict and on Tuesday the Armenian defence ministry said a Turkish F-16 flying in support of Baku´s forces downed an Armenian SU-25 warplane. Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said the Turkish jet was supporting Azerbaijani aviation bombing civilian settlements in Armenia when it shot down the Armenian plane, killing the pilot.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan´s top press aide called the claim "absolutely untrue".

Earlier, Azerbaijani and Armenian forces claimed to have inflicted heavy losses as fighting raged for a third day on Tuesday over Azerbaijan´s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Twelve Azeri civilians have been killed and 35 wounded by Armenian fire, the Azeri Prosecutor’s office said.

Nagorno-Karabakh said 53 of its soldiers had been killed in fighting with Azeri forces. It also said it had recovered some lost territory on Sunday, but its leader later said neither the Azeri army nor the Armenian military captured any tactical positions during the fighting on Monday. In Baku, officials dismissed claims by the separatists that Armenian-backed troops had regained control of territory they lost in Sunday´s fighting.

Azerbaijan said its military had repelled an Armenian counterattack and destroyed an Armenian motorised column and an artillery unit and, later, an entire motorised infantry regiment.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has "urgently called for an immediate ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table," her spokesman said, after she spoke with Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also for an end to fighting and a return to negotiations "as quickly as possible". Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has rejected any possibility of talks with Armenia and said that Yerevan’s demands were unacceptable, Russian news agencies reported.