Turkey downs Russian jet, Putin says ‘stab in the back’

Ankara/Moscow, November 24

Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday, saying it had repeatedly violated its air space, one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the plane had been attacked when it was 1 km (0.62 mile) inside Syria and warned of “serious consequences” for what he termed a “stab in the back”.

Russian and Turkish shares fell on fears of an escalation between the former Cold War enemies. Each country summoned a diplomatic representative of the other.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), meanwhile, called an “extraordinary” meeting at Ankara’s request to discuss the emerging situation, an alliance official said. “The aim of this extraordinary North Atlantic Council is for Turkey to inform Allies about the downing of a Russian airplane,” the official said. The North Atlantic Council consists of ambassadors from the 28 NATO member states.

Footage from private Turkish broadcaster Haberturk TV showed the warplane going down in flames in a woodland area, a long plume of smoke trailing behind it. The plane went down in area known by Turks as “Turkmen Mountain”, it said. Separate footage from Turkey’s Anadolu Agency showed two pilots parachuting out of the jet before it crashed. 

out of the jet before it crashed. A Syrian rebel group sent a video to Reuters that appeared to show one of the pilots immobile and badly wounded on the ground and an official from the group said he was dead.

Russia's defence ministry said one of its Su-24 fighter jets had been downed in Syria and that, according to preliminary information, the pilots were able to eject. "For the entire duration of the flight, the aircraft was exclusively over Syrian territory," it said.

The Turkish military said the aircraft had been warned 10 times in the space of five minutes about violating Turkish air space. Officials said a second plane had also approached the border and been warned.

"The data we have is very clear. There were two planes approaching our border, we warned them as they were getting too close," a senior Turkish official told Reuters.

"We warned them to avoid entering Turkish air space before they did, and we warned them many times. Our findings show clearly that Turkish air space was violated multiple times. And they violated it knowingly," the official said. — Agencies

Turkey has right to defend its airspace: US

"Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its airspace… my top priority is going to be to ensure that this does not escalate." -  Barack Obama, US President

Contradictory claims on pilots’ fate

Turkish authorities said the two pilots, who ejected from a downed Russian jet downed, were alive and a search was on find them. Turkmen forces in Syria, however, claimed their comrades opened fire as the pilots descended with parachutes, killing them in the air.