News, reports, photos / videos on military actions in Karabakh for September 29, 2020

Azerbaijan and Turkey have denied the news that a Turkish F-16 fighter shot down an Armenian Su-25 attack aircraft, spread by the press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry Shushan Stepanyan.

Turkish Minister of Transport Fahrettin Altun called this news false.

The head of the press service of Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan, Vagif Dargahli, also denied this information.

“This is another fantasy of the Armenian propaganda machine,” he said.

Turkish fighter shoots down Armenian SU-25, pilot killed

A Turkish fighter took off from the airfield of the Azerbaijani city of Ganja and covered the actions of Azerbaijani aviation and drones that attacked the settlements of Vardenis, Mets Masrik and Sotk in Armenia itself, the press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry Shushan Stepanyan reported.

“During the execution of the combat mission, the Armenian attack aircraft was shot down by a Turkish fighter. Unfortunately, the pilot died, heroically.”

Earlier, military expert Artsrun Hovhannisyan reported that the Nagorno-Karabakh defense army shot down an Israeli-made Orbiter-1K strike drone from Azerbaijan and destroyed 12 enemy tanks.

As a result of shelling of Armenian settlements around the city of Vardenis, an Armenian civilian has been killed.

Earlier, the Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which it refuted the accusations of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry against Armenia about missile attacks from the Vardenis region in the Dashkesan region of Azerbaijan.

“This disinformation is absolutely false and has the goal of paving the way for expanding the geography of military operations, including the implementation of aggression against the Republic of Armenia,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Photo: Photo of the Minister of Defense of Armenia in Karabakh

Since the beginning of the escalation in Karabakh on the morning of September 27, as a result of shelling by the Armenian armed forces, 10 civilians of Azerbaijan have been killed, said Leyla Abdullayeva, press secretary of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

About 30 more people were injured.

There are no official data on the number of dead and wounded servicemen in

Azerbaijan.  The Khazar Research Center reported on September 27 that 11 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed, a figure based on information from social networks.

On the morning of September 29, the Armenian side announced the figure of 84 dead since the beginning of hostilities on September 27.

Qafqazinfo reported that the Armenian armed forces fired on residential houses in the Shikharh settlement of the Terter region of Azerbaijan for the second time in two days.

Video from Shikharkh:

This decision was made after early in the morning of September 29, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces along the entire front line switched to offensive operations, using heavy missile systems TOS-1, MLRS “Smert” and other systems.

A spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry said that the enemy is forcing the Armenian side to switch to long-range and powerful strike systems. This, according to Shushan Stepanyan, changes the whole logic and scale of hostilities, “raising them to a new level.”

At the same time, there was a message that the Armenian Armed Forces shot down a helicopter during the fighting in Karabakh.

“Ours just shot down a helicopter.  Perhaps several helicopters, ”military expert Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.

19-year-old soldier buried today in Baku suburb of Shuvelan

The press service of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reports that on the night of September 28-29, the Armenian armed forces repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to counterattack in order to regain the lost positions in the Fizuli-Jebrail and Agdere-Terter directions.

“The enemy was forced to retreat, suffering heavy losses,” the Defense Ministry said.

Intense fighting continues now.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey is sending Syrian rebel fighters to support Azerbaijan in its escalating conflict with neighbouring Armenia, two Syrian rebels have said, as Ankara pledges to step up backing for its majority-Muslim ally.

The two fighters, from Turkish-backed rebel groups in areas of northern Syria under Turkish control, said they were deploying to Azerbaijan in coordination with Ankara.

Both men said they had been told by their Syrian brigade commanders they would earn around $1,500 a month – a large wage for Syria, where the economy and currency have collapsed.

The fighter said he had arranged his assignment with an official from the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in Afrin, a region of northwest Syria seized by Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies two years ago.

The other fighter, from the SNA-affiliated Jaish al-Nukhba militia, said he had been told nearly 1,000 Syrians were set to be deployed to Azerbaijan. Other rebels, who also declined to be named, gave figures of between 700 and 1,000.

The two men, who spoke to Reuters last week, said they expected to be despatched on Sept. 25, to guard facilities but not to fight. Reuters was not able to contact them on Monday to confirm their location.

Hikmat Hajiyev, a foreign policy aide to Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said it was “complete nonsense” to say Syrian fighters were coming to help his country: “Our armed forces have more than enough personnel and reserve forces.”

• Reuters: Turkey deploying Syrian fighters to help ally Azerbaijan, two fighters say

• “[The West] with its weapons in Syria cannot talk about Turkish soldiers in the Caucasus” – Erdogan

Photo: REUTERS/Murad Sezer. A Turkish ultranationalist holding a flag of Azerbaijan chants slogans during a protest against Armenia in central Istanbul. April, 2016

• News, reports, photos / videos on military operations in Karabakh for September 28, 2020

At 7 am on September 27, large-scale military operations began around Nagorno-Karabakh and on the border of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Both military and civilian casualties on both sides have been reported.