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News ID: 21026
Publish Date : 25 November 2015 - 21:01
Surviving Pilot:

No Way Jet Violated Turkish Airspace

MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- The surviving crew member of a Russian warplane shot down by Turkey said on Wednesday the plane received no warnings from the Turkish Air Force and did not fly over Turkish air space, Russian news agencies reported.
Turkey shot down the Russian plane near the Syrian border on Tuesday, claiming it had violated its air space, in one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century.
Navigator Konstantin Murakhtin was rescued by Russian and Syrian special forces after ejecting from the plane but the pilot was shot dead by terrorists as he parachuted to the ground.
"There were no warnings, either by radio or visually. There was no contact whatsoever," TASS quoted Murakhtin as saying at a hospital in the Syrian province of Latakia, where Russia has an airbase.
"If they wanted to warn us, they could have shown themselves by taking a parallel course. There was nothing. And the missile hit the tail of our aircraft suddenly, we did not see it in time to do an anti-missile maneuver."
Ankara had claimed the plane was repeatedly warned to change course after encroaching on Turkish air space but Moscow has denied that its warplane flew over Turkish territory.
Murakhtin also said his jet did not leave Syrian airspace.
"I could see perfectly on the map and on the ground where the border was and where we were. There was no danger of entering Turkey," he was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that the downing of the bomber resembled a "planned provocation".
"We have serious doubts that it was an unpremeditated act. It’s very similar to a planned provocation," Lavrov said during a news conference in Moscow.
Asked whether he thought the incident could escalate into a conflict, Lavrov said, "We do not intend to fight with Turkey; our relationship with the Turkish people has not changed. There are just questions that have arisen for the Turkish government."
The plane’s other pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov, was killed after he ejected, according to Russian defense officials. Putin said Peshkov will be awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of Russia medal, one of Russia’s highest military honors.
Simultaneously, Russia’s defense ministry announced it would be deploying advanced anti-aircraft missile systems to Syria, close to where the incident happened to prevent further attacks of its planes conducting strikes there.
The downing -- the first of a Russian plane by a NATO aircraft since the 1950s -- has prompted a diplomatic crisis between Russia and Turkey and added yet another tangle to the intractable Syrian conflict.
Russia has been supporting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with an air campaign for the past two months. Turkey, which is deeply opposed to Assad, has been supporting terrorist groups with arms and money.
Putin has accused Turkey of supporting terrorism, calling it an "accomplice of terrorists”. The incident has caused a sharp breach in Russian-Turkish relations, with Russia’s foreign ministry recommending Russian citizens stop visiting Turkey and most major tour operators halting sales of trips there.