Outbreak of Violence in Nagorno-Karabakh
Violence broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia on Sunday in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The region has been contested since the end of the 1988-94 war. The region is majority ethnic Armenian and the regional parliament voted to become part of Armenia upon Azerbaijan's separation from the Soviet Union. Turkey's borders with Armenia have been closed since 1993 and the Turkish government views the separatist republic in Nagorno-Karabakh as an illegal occupation.
Russia has called for an immediate ceasefire. Russia has conflicting interests in the region. They currently have a military base and a mutual defence pact with Armenia but friendly relations with Azerbaijan. There are varying claims of the number of deaths and casualties, these range from 100 to 2,300 and have yet to be independently verified.
Armenia claims at 10:30 am (GMT+4) a Turkish F-16 from a military base in Azerbaijan entered Armenian airspace and shot down an Armenian SU-25. Turkey has denied this and called it cheap propaganda. Turkey has also offered assistance to Azerbaijan "both on the field and at the negotiation table". The conflict is also raising tensions for Turkey with the EU, Russia, and the UN.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54345622
https://twitter.com/shstepanyan?lang=en
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/27/armenia-and-azerbaijan-a-decades-long-bloody-rivalry
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/30/over-2000-armenian-soldiers-killed-turkish-state-media-live