Turkey returns body of Russian pilot whose warplane it shot down

The body of a Russian pilot killed after his jet was shot down by the Turkish military has been handed over to Turkish authorities, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told journalists in Ankara on Sunday.

– Turkey’s seaside resorts are among the most popular tourism destinations for Russians; for Turkey, Russia is the source of the second-largest number of tourist arrivals after Germany. The Russian embassy declined to comment and Turkish officials did not immediately disclose when the body would be repatriated to Russia.

Pro-government newspaper Sabah Daily reported that Turkey had tightened security along its border with Syria on Saturday, deploying additional tanks, armoured personnel vehicles and other weapons alongside its border with Syria.

Earlier, Turkey said it had returned the body of the pilot to Russian Federation.

A Russian plane carrying the body of Oleg Peshkov left Ankara’s Esenboga International Airport airport for Russia, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported, without giving further details.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in no mood to apologize, and warned that Ankara would act in the same way in the event of another intrusion. Turkey’s actions may have quietly troubled its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partners too. Russian Federation buys Turkish exports including produce, having already banned food from the United States and European Union in retaliation for financial sanctions imposed over Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine.

“The American side, which leads the coalition that Turkey belongs to, knew about the location and time of our planes’ flights, and we were hit exactly there and at that time”, he said according to The Independent. There was much bickering back and forth with Turkey insisting that the plane was violating Turkish airspace and was given as many as ten warnings before it was shot down, killing one pilot.

Relations between Turkey and Russian Federation have sharply deteriorated since Tuesday’s incident, with Russian Federation imposing economic sanctions and revoking a visa-free agreement, while Turkey has sought to cool tensions, seeing the Paris climate change talks that start this week as a chance to mend ties.

A photo shows the Russian Su-24 warplane is downed by two Turkish F-16s on the border between Turkey and Syria on November 24, 2015.

Russian Federation said on Monday it’d prohibit primarily imports of agricultural goods, vegetables and fruits from Turkey, even though it could delay the constraints for a number of weeks to “alleviate inflationary pressure”.

Erdogan lamented Russia’s intention to halt economic cooperation with Turkey, saying political leaders should talk first.

– Turkey commissioned Russia’s state-owned Rosatom in 2013 to build four 1,200-megawatt nuclear reactors in a project worth $20 billion.