Mr Murakhtin’s comments came as Russian forces were reportedly pounding insurgent-held areas in Syria’s Latakia province, unleashing a wave of air strikes on mountains near where the Russian jet was shot down. The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday confirmed that a Su-24 warplane crashed in Syria.
Advertisement
It said they have responded all questions and displayed radar tracks of the flights by Russian planes that violated Turkish airspace.
It added that Syrian and Russian rocket launchers also fired on militant positions near the Turkish borders.
Most of the over-a-minute recording was unintelligible, but one voice could be heard as saying “change your heading”.
At the same day the Turkey’s military invited Russian military officials to its headquarters to claim that the Turkish military didn’t know the nationality of the plane and the rules of engagement were automatically used.
Turkish officials say the jet was warned 10 times before it was targeted by an air-to-air missile – and have released audio to try to prove it.
With world leaders calling for calm, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that he was not seeking to escalate tensions with Moscow.
“There was no warning, not by radio exchange nor visually”, said Murakhtin, who was rescued by Russian special forces.
A Russian Marine dispatched to rescue the pilots was also killed in the operation.
Following his rescue on Tuesday, the surviving pilot of the downed Russian Su24 claimed that Turkey’s attack on the fighter plane with its two F-16s was intentional.
In his first reaction to the incident, Erdogan said: “Everyone must respect the right of Turkey to protect its borders”.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov described it as a “planned act” and said it would impact efforts towards a political solution in Syria. “There was no danger of entering Turkey”, he was quoted by Interfax as saying.
He said that his country was dealing with Turkey as a neighbour and a friendly state.
Advertisement
He said any “undermining of neighbourly relations between Moscow and Ankara” could lead to “refusal from important joint projects” as well as the “loss of Turkish companies’ positions on Russian markets”.
