NATO allies spar over Nagorno-Karabakh fighting

Intensifying conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan this week is dividing NATO allies.

On Wednesday (September 30), France and Turkey sparred over the fighting in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, deepening concerns outside powers could be drawn into it.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a breakaway region in Azerbaijan run by ethnic Armenians. The two sides are waging their fiercest battles over it since the mid-1990s.

Dozens have been reported killed and hundreds wounded, and fighting -- using heavy artillery -- has spread beyond the enclave's borders.

Threatening to spill into all-out war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

These young Azeri men are queuing up to enlist. Both countries have declared martial law and mobilised their male populations.

Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said Wednesday Ankara would 'do what is necessary', when asked if it would give military support to its ally, Azerbaijan, if requested.

French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is home to many people of Armenian ancestry, hit back at Turkey's, quote, "warlike" rhetoric.

Armenia has another powerful ally in Moscow.

Meanwhile, Armenia's unified information centre, an online governmental platform, posted pictures of the wreckage of what it said was a SU-25 warplane shot down by a Turkish fighter jet on Tuesday.

Turkey denied downing the plane. A senior Azeri official accused Armenia of lying, saying two of its SU-25s had in fact crashed into a mountain.