Russian President Vladimir Putin said the shoot-down of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey on Tuesday was “a stab in the back.”
“This event goes beyond the fight against terrorism. Of course, our servicemen are engaged in a heroic struggle against terrorism, not sparing themselves or their own lives. But today’s loss is related to a stab in the back, carried out against us by accomplices of terrorists. I cannot otherwise describe what happened today,” Putin said in Sochi, Russia, as he met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
Turkey said the Russian Su-24 was given 10 warnings in five minutes after it strayed into Turkish airspace along the Syrian border before being shot down by two F-16 fighter jets, the official Anatolia news agency said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, citing preliminary data, said the two pilots were able to eject from the aircraft. Turkmen rebels in Syria told reporters that their forces shot both pilots dead as they descended in parachutes.
“Analysis of the objective monitoring data definitely showed that there had not been any violation of the Turkish air space,” the defense ministry said in a tweet.
After an emergency meeting of NATO ministers in Brussels at Turkey’s request, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg backed the Turkish version of events, but called for calm and said the alliance discussed ways of reducing the risk of such incidents in the future.
“Diplomacy and de-escalation are important to resolve this situation,” Stoltenberg told reporters.
Turkey is a member of the alliance and any potential conflict with Russia could draw in the United States and European countries. U.S. officials have worried about the possibility of conflict since Russia entered the war in Syria at the end of September to support embattled President Bashar Assad. Russian jets have previously violated the border, and in October Turkish officials said their forces shot down a Russian drone that strayed across.
“Our Turkish allies informed us that their military aircraft shot down a Russian military aircraft near the Syrian border after it violated Turkish airspace on Tuesday,” a U.S. defense official said. “At this time, we can confirm that U.S. forces were not involved in this incident.”
Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the military command of the anti-Islamic State coalition, said officials were still analyzing data to confirm on which side of the border the incident took place.
“There were no U.S. personnel in the vicinity of this incident, so we did not observe it,” he told reporters via video teleconference on Tuesday. “We’re still gathering all the facts and looking at all the details.”
