DAMASCUS – The Russian government announced Wednesday that Turkey may have planned the downing of one of its fighter jets near the Syrian border. | What was your first clue, Ivan -- the Sidewinders? |
“The attack looks very much like a planned provocation,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday, adding that Turkey was defending Syrian rebels against the government forces in the area where the downing of the Russian warplane took place.
“We can’t leave what happened without a response,” the Russian FM said.
On the other hand, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement that the Russian fighter jet was downed “after failing to heed multiple warnings and crossing into Turkey’s airspace”.
“We certainly don’t have any idea to escalate this issue,” Erdogan said.
| "We made our point." |
Putin considered Turkey’s downing of the Russian jet “a stab in the back”.
One of the Russian pilots who was rescued by special forces stressed that they have not received any warnings by the Turkish army before shooting down the warplane.
“If they’d wanted to warn us, they could have shown themselves, taking a parallel course,” the pilot said. “But there was nothing. And the rocket hit the tail of our plane suddenly. We didn’t even get a visual of it in time to take evasive action.”
| If the Turks had indeed flown up next to you what would you have done? |
| Then there's the below. Who to believe? |
The Turkish army on Wednesday released a series of audio recordings of apparent warnings issued to a Russian jet before it was downed near the Syrian border.
"This is Turkish Air Force speaking on guard. You are approaching Turkish airspace. Change your heading south immediately," a voice in one of the recordings can be heard saying.