Wednesday, September 30 2020 13:39

ArmInfo.The RA Ministry of Defense is ready to present evidence of the involvement of Turkish F-16 fighters in the hostilities in Karabakh and Armenia. On  September 30, at a briefing in Yerevan, official representative of  the RA Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan stated this.

According to him, the Armenian side is well aware of what fighters  the Azerbaijani side has, which cannot solve the tasks assigned to  them. Therefore, the Turkish F-16 were involved. "We also know very  well how long they have been cooperating. Armenia possesses  information, and everyone who doubts or does not take our statements  seriously will receive surprises in the form of radiotechnical  evidence," the representative of the RA Ministry of Defense said. He  noted that only F-16s are capable of delivering missile strikes with  a range of up to 100 km. It is also well known that, technically,  Turkish drones "Bayraktar" and other UAVs are not capable of  interacting with the MiG-29 or Su-25, which are in the arsenal of  Azerbaijan. These and other facts prove that Turkish air forces are  operating from the territory of Azerbaijan. At the same time, a  Turkish radiotechnical  aircraft is operating from the other side of  the border. "The Armenian side knows very well how many Turkish  fighters are in Azerbaijan now and how they got there," Artsrun  Hovhannisyan said.

He recalled that after the large-scale Turkish-Azerbaijani exercises  on August 13-14, Turkish F- 16 fighters did not return to their  bases, but remained in Azerbaijan. To remind, today, on September 30,  the Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement in connection with  the involvement of the Turkish Armed Forces in operations in the zone  of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The statement of the Armenian  Foreign Ministry, in particular, says: " On September 29, F-16  multifunctional fighter of the Turkish Air Forces, with base in the  "Ganja" airport of Azerbaijan, downed within the airspace of the  Republic of Armenia in Vardenis region the SU-25 Fighter of the  Armenian Armed Forces which was carrying out combat tasks to repel  the attacks of Azerbaijan on military and civilian objects. Major  Valeri Danelin, pilot of the Armed Forces of Armenia, was killed.   This is not the first provocative action of the Turkish air forces.  Since appearing in Azerbaijan, the Turkish air forces have 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 appeared in Azerbaijan during the large-scale  Turkish-Azerbaijani military drills held from July 29 to August 13  and, since then, has not been 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.  International community called  on the external actors 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  Turkish armed forces, including the air force from the conflict  zone."