armenia says it could shoot down turkish planes armenia says it could shoot down turkish planes by david ljunggren moscow april reuter armenia accused turkey on friday of flying weapons x and troops across armenian airspace to azerbaijan and strongly hinted it might try to shoot the planes down local journalists in yerevan said separately itar tass news agency said armenian forces had halted their latest offensive which has swallowed up one tenth of azerbaijan and sent tensions in the transcaucasian region soaring the journalists in the armenian capital quoted armen duliyan head of the armenian defence ministry press centre as saying ankara had been sending planes up to times a day to azerbaijan with arms and troops it looks as though the armenian leadership will have to warn turkey about the impermissibility of such actions the journalists quoted duliyan as saying if such steps are pursued in the future we will have recourse to appropriate measures we have all the necessary means including modern anti aircraft units turkey which shares a border with armenia has supported azerbaijan in the conflict over the mainly armenian populated nagorno karabakh region in which more than people have been killed since fighting erupted in the turkish foreign ministry said on friday it had so far sent one plane to azerbaijan containing humanitarian aid a turkish foreign ministry spokesman on thursday would not comment directly on a report by hurriyet newspaper that a first consignment of rockets rocket launchers ammunition and light weapons had arrived in azerbaijan from turkey duliyan said turkey had been sending up to trucks a day carrying troops and arms to the bordering azeri autonomous territory of nakhichevan from where they were flown across armenian airspace to the azeri capital baku all the responsibility for possible consequences will be borne by the country which is affording military assistance over our airspace he said armenia denies any formal role in the conflict saying that the troops involved in the fighting are from the enclave itself tass said the karabakh forces decided on friday to suspend their offensive along the entire armenian azerbaijani front the karabakh authorities are reportedly ready to give independent inspectors a chance to see for themselves on the spot that the enclave s leadership is striving to achieve a ceasefire the agency said armenian president levon ter petrosyan called for a two stage ceasefire in karabakh when he arrived in the belarus capital minsk on friday for a summit of commonwealth leaders the first stage of the settlement should involve a ceasefire and securing the protection of the karabakh population tass quoted him as saying at least ceasefires have been brokered in the conflict but all have collapsed the second stage should involve discussing and finding a solution to the legal issues that is a clarification of the status of nagorno karabakh he said the republic declared full independence last year but the move has not been recognised by any other country armenia insists that a separate karabakh delegation should take part in future peace talks something azerbaijan rejects local news agencies in baku said on friday that interior minister iskender gamidov a fiery nationalist and hardliner in the territorial dispute with armenia had resigned turan news agency said he quit on thursday and had cleared his office khabar servis agency said he would be replaced by the military commandant of baku police major general abdullah allakhverdiyev there was no official confirmation david davidian dbd urartu sdpa org how do we explain turkish troops on s d p a center for regional studies the armenian border when we can t p o box even explain cambridge ma turkish mp march
