The Turkish army said earlier the fighter was shot down by two of its F-16s after it violated Turkish airspace 10 times within a five-minute period.
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The letter from Turkey’s United Nations Ambassador Halit Cevik said “two SU-24 planes, the nationality of which are unknown”, approached Turkish airspace in the Yayladagi-Hatay region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called the downing “a stab in the back delivered by accomplices of the terrorists”. “Try to win its friendship”.
Tensions in the Middle East ratcheted up dangerously Wednesday, a day after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane, with the Turkish President accusing Russia of deceit and Russia announcing it would deploy anti-aircraft missiles to Syria.
Turkey had already warned Moscow about violating its airspace, and says Russian planes did so twice in October.
Ambassador Alexander Orlov said on Europe-1 radio Wednesday, November 25, that one of the pilots was wounded, then killed on the ground by jihadists.
“This is the area of the border where you can easily [move] over one part of Syria to the other, while flying over a little bit of Turkey”.
Oil prices moved higher after Saudi Arabia said it was prepared to work with other producers to stabilise prices, although dealers remain subdued owing to a long-running supply glut, continued overproduction and anaemic demand. “So it’s important for us to be clear that we will respond and defend Turkey if they come under assault from the Russians”.
Warren described the downing of the aircraft as “an incident between the Russian and the Turkish governments” and not one involving the coalition. “The pilots were reportedly able to parachute out of the jet before it crashed”.
Syria has been embroiled for more than four years in a brutal civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, sent millions of families fleeing and laid waste to entire cities.
The spokeswoman pointed out that RAF planes regularly pass through Turkish air space with permission on their way from their base at Akrotiri in Cyprus to carry out air strikes on IS militants in Iraq.
“The moment of the plane falling into Bayirbucak region across from Hatay’s Yayladagi was captured on camera”, the Anadolu Agency reported. Further videos show two pilots with parachutes soaring above the Turkmen-populated area near the border.
The U.S. said Russia’s fighter jets were targeting opposition forces in the area, not Islamic state. “This is going to complicate things”.
As well as cancelling his visit to Turkey, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned Russians against travel to the country, which would be a huge blow for the Turkish tourism industry.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Russian Federation both had planes in the sky over the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s – happily they avoided the sort of incident which threatens to set the old adversaries at loggerheads once again.
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“President Hollande and I agreed that the best way to bring peace to Syria is through the principles reaffirmed in Vienna, which require active Russian support for a cease fire and a political transition to a democratically elected government that can unite”.
