Near Turkey’s border with Syria, a Russian warplane is crashed. The warplane is made crash by Turkey’s fighter jets on the grounds that it violated the airspace of Turkey.
It is reported that a warplane is crashed on the tents of Turkmens in Yamadi Village in Syria which is near Yayladağı district of Hatay.
Turkish military sources confirmed that Turkey’s fighter jets downed a plane because it violated the airspace.
Meeting with King Abdullah in Jordan, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said, “Russia and Jordan will join their forces in the fight against terrorism. Our army and intelligence authorities work in order to achieve this goal.”
On the downing of Russia’s warplane, Putin said: “Downing of our plane in Syria is outside the scope of fighting against terrorism. We are stabbed in the back.” Here are the highlights of Putin’s speech:
- Russia’s pilots and planes had in no way threatened Turkey. This is obvious.
- The plane that was crashed in Syria had been carrying out its duty to fight ISIS militants inside Syria by pre-emptive strikes.
- The plane was on Syrian territory, 4 kilometers from the Turkish border.
- Turkey hit the plane, despite the fact that we signed an agreement with our American partners to warn each other about air-to-air incidents.
- This incident will have serious consequences for Russo-Turkish relations.
Moscow: no violation of airspace
Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed that that plane is a warplane that belongs to Russia and made statement declaring that the warplane was shot down while it was flying 6000m above the ground. It is also noted that there was no violation of Turkey’s airspace and they can prove it.
Russian Ministry of Defence, in the statement they released, said that they are trying to get information about the condition of the pilots and according to initial data and statements of the witnesses, they bailed out.
Turkey, after Russian planes bombarded the Turkmen region in Syria, warned Russia by sending a note and stated that they would enforce the rules of engagement, if the Russian planes would virtually violate the border security.
Turkish General Staff: we warned 10 times
Turkish General Staff declared that they detected a plane that was violating Turkey’s airspace, and because it continued to violate the airspace despite it was warned 10 times in 5 minutes, Turkey’s fighter jets intervened within the scope of the rules of engagement.
Turkey, after Russian planes bombarded the Turkmen region in Syria, warned Russia by sending a note and stated that they would enforce the rules of engagement, if the Russian planes would virtually violate the border security.
