Pilot: Turkey issued no warnings before downing Russian warplane

A Russian pilot who survived the downing of his plane said Turkish jets did not issue any warnings beforehand.

Captain Konstantin Murahtin’s comments were reported by state-owned Russian media after he managed to parachute to the ground and evade rebels, before being rescued by Syrian and Russian special forces in an overnight operation.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Turkey’s actions had increased tensions between Russian Federation and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, of which Ankara is a member, reiterating Putin’s accusation that unnamed Turkish officials were benefiting from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) oil sales.

Turkey shot down a Russian war plane on the Syrian border on Tuesday, sending tensions spiraling as Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ankara its “stab in the back” would have serious consequences.

Russia’s deployment of new air defense systems at its base near Latakia, Syria, also will further complicate efforts to press the Obama administration to enforce a “safe zone” for civilians inside Syria to help stem the flow of hundreds of thousands of refugees into Europe.

Turkey on Tuesday shot down a Russian warplane that it said had entered Turkish airspace, something denied by Moscow.

Secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said assessments provided by other alliance members were consistent with Turkey’s claims that the Su-24 had violated its airspace.

The Russian ambassador to France says Moscow is prepared to “create a joint staff” with Paris, Washington, and even Ankara to fight Daesh terrorists operating in Syria. It looks very much like a preplanned provocation, ” Lavrov said, citing Turkey’s failure to maintain proper communication with Russian Federation, the abundance of footage of the incident and other evidence. He said his ministry has severed all contacts with the Turkish military.

Russian bombing In Russia’s lower house of parliament, meanwhile, a pro- Kremlin deputy proposed outlawing denial of the 1915 Ottoman Turkish massacres of up to 1.5 million Armenians as “genocide” – a term which infuriates Turkey’s leaders. “Those were all those Turkmen groups”, said CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel.

There was no sign Russian Federation wanted a military escalation, or to jeopardise its main objective in the region: to rally global support for its view on how the conflict in Syria should be resolved.

Moscow will measure its response to limit the harm done to Turkish and Russian businessmen, who had nothing to do with the incident, and would decide on a proper action, Lavrov said.

Moving forward, said Buck, it is important that those military connections with Russian Federation remain in place.

Toner also added that Turkmens were actually have every right to defend themselves in case being attacked by these Russian strikes. While there is no evidence of it explicitly supporting the IS, fighting it is not a priority for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Speaking at an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation economy meeting in Istanbul, Erdogan said that Turkey favours “peace, dialogue and diplomacy”.

At the same time, however, he strongly defended the shooting down of the Su-24, warning “no one should expect Turkey to stay silent to border violations or the violation of its rights”. A Russian marine sent to recover the crew was also killed in an attack by rebels.