Karabakh Conflict Zone Widens as Turkey Denies Downing Armenian Plane

This image taken from a video released by Armenian Defense Ministry on Monday, Sept. 28, 2020 allegedly shows fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces at the contact line of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. Armenian and Azerbaijani forces fought over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh for a second day Monday, with both sides blaming each other for resuming the attacks that reportedly killed and wounded dozens as the decades-old conflict has reignited.(Armenian Defense Ministry via AP)
This image taken from a video released by Armenian Defense Ministry on Monday, Sept. 28, 2020 allegedly shows fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces at the contact line of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. Armenian and Azerbaijani forces fought over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh for a second day Monday, with both sides blaming each other for resuming the attacks that reportedly killed and wounded dozens as the decades-old conflict has reignited.(Armenian Defense Ministry via AP)
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Karabakh Conflict Zone Widens as Turkey Denies Downing Armenian Plane

This image taken from a video released by Armenian Defense Ministry on Monday, Sept. 28, 2020 allegedly shows fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces at the contact line of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. Armenian and Azerbaijani forces fought over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh for a second day Monday, with both sides blaming each other for resuming the attacks that reportedly killed and wounded dozens as the decades-old conflict has reignited.(Armenian Defense Ministry via AP)
This image taken from a video released by Armenian Defense Ministry on Monday, Sept. 28, 2020 allegedly shows fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces at the contact line of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. Armenian and Azerbaijani forces fought over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh for a second day Monday, with both sides blaming each other for resuming the attacks that reportedly killed and wounded dozens as the decades-old conflict has reignited.(Armenian Defense Ministry via AP)

Armenia and Azerbaijan accused one another on Tuesday of firing directly into each other’s territory as the worst regional fighting since the 1990s raged for a third day and civilian deaths mounted.

Both reported firing from the other side across their shared border, well to the west of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region over which fierce fighting broke out between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces on Sunday.

The incidents signaled a further escalation of the conflict despite urgent appeals from Russia, the United States and others to halt the fighting.

Also fueling tensions, Armenia said an F-16 fighter jet belonging to Azerbaijan’s close ally Turkey had shot down one of its warplanes over Armenian airspace, killing the pilot.

It provided no evidence of the incident. Turkey and Azerbaijan called the claim “absolutely untrue”.

Dozens of people have been reported killed and hundreds wounded since clashes between Azerbaijan and its ethnic Armenian mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh broke out on Sunday.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a breakaway region that is inside Azerbaijan but is run by ethnic Armenians and is supported by Armenia. It broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s, but is not recognized by any country as an independent republic.

A descent into all-out war could drag in regional powers Russia and Turkey. Moscow has a defense alliance with Armenia, which is the enclave’s lifeline to the outside world, while Ankara backs its own ethnic Turkic kin in Azerbaijan.

Plane dispute
An Armenian defense ministry spokeswoman said the Armenian Sukhoi Su-25 warplane had been on a military assignment when it was downed by an F-16 fighter jet owned by the Turkish air force.

Turkey’s communications director Fahrettin Altun said: “Armenia should withdraw from the territories under its occupation instead of resorting to cheap propaganda tricks.”

Azeri presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev told Reuters: “The Su-25 was not even detected by our radars. Let Armenia present evidence.”

The Kremlin said earlier that Moscow was in constant contact with Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan over the conflict. Any talk of providing military support for the opposing sides would only add fuel to the fire, it said.

Azerbaijan’s prosecutor’s office said 12 Azeri civilians had so far been killed and 35 wounded by Armenian fire. The Azeri side has not disclosed military casualties.

Nagorno-Karabakh has reported the loss of at least 84 soldiers. Armenia said on Tuesday that a 9-year-old girl was killed in shelling, while her mother and a brother were wounded. A mother and her child were killed on Sunday, the defense ministry of Nagorno-Karabakh said.

Fighting spreads
In a sign that fighting was spreading, Armenia’s foreign ministry reported the first death in Armenia proper - a civilian it said was killed in an Azeri attack in the town of Vardenis more than 20 km (12 miles) from Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian defense ministry said an Armenian civilian bus caught fire in the town after being hit by an Azeri drone. It was not clear if the reported civilian death was from that incident.

Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said that from Vardenis the Armenian army had shelled the Dashkesan region inside Azerbaijan. Armenia denied those reports.

The clashes have reignited concern over stability in the South Caucasus region, a corridor for pipelines carrying oil and gas to world markets.

Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said both sides had attempted to recover lost ground by mounting counter-attacks in the directions of Fizuli, Jabrayil, Agdere - Armenian-occupied areas of Azerbaijan that border Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia reported fighting throughout the night, and said that Nagorno-Karabakh’s army had repelled attacks in several directions along the line of contact.



At UN, Panama Reminds Trump He Should Not Be Threatening Force 

Liberian flagged Hallasan Explorer LPG tanker navigates at the Panama Canal, in Panama on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
Liberian flagged Hallasan Explorer LPG tanker navigates at the Panama Canal, in Panama on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
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At UN, Panama Reminds Trump He Should Not Be Threatening Force 

Liberian flagged Hallasan Explorer LPG tanker navigates at the Panama Canal, in Panama on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
Liberian flagged Hallasan Explorer LPG tanker navigates at the Panama Canal, in Panama on January 20, 2025. (AFP)

Panama has alerted the United Nations - in a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday - to US President Donald Trump's remarks during his inauguration speech, when he vowed that the United States would take back the Panama Canal.

Panama's UN Ambassador Eloy Alfaro de Alba noted that under the founding UN Charter, countries "shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state".

The letter was addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and circulated to the 15-member Security Council. Panama is a member of the council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, for 2025-26.

Doubling down on his pre-inauguration threat to reimpose US control over the canal, Trump on Monday accused Panama of breaking the promises it made for the final transfer of the strategic waterway in 1999 and of ceding its operation to China - claims that the Panamanian government has strongly denied.

"We didn't give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back," Trump said just minutes after being sworn in for a second four-year term.

Alfaro de Alba shared Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino's rejection of Trump's remarks.

"Dialogue is always the way to clarify the points mentioned without undermining our right, total sovereignty and ownership of our Canal," Mulino said.

The United States largely built the canal and administered territory surrounding the passage for decades. But the United States and Panama signed a pair of accords in 1977 that paved the way for the canal's return to full Panamanian control. The United States handed it over in 1999 after a period of joint administration.