27 Nov 2015

Turkey 'had to know' fighter jet was Russian

3:08 pm on 27 November 2015

Russia has rejected Turkey's claims it did not know the plane it shot down on the Syrian border was Russian.

The aircraft goes down in Kizildag region of Turkey's Hatay province, close to the Syrian border, on November 24, 2015.

Russia claims the downed plane was attacked inside Syria, not Turkey. Photo: AFP

President Vladimir Putin said Russian planes were easily identifiable and the jet's flight co-ordinates had been passed on to Turkey's ally, the US.

Turkey's president said earlier if it had known the plane was Russian "maybe we would have warned it differently".

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the shooting down of a Russian jet by Turkey was a stab in the back by "accomplices of terrorists".

Vladimir Putin said the shooting down of a Russian jet by Turkey was a stab in the back by "accomplices of terrorists". Photo: AFP

Mr Putin was speaking after meeting his French counterpart and pledging closer co-operation against Islamic State.

IS claimed the 13 November attacks in Paris which killed 130 people.

Two Russian servicemen died after the Russian SU-24 plane crashed into a mountainside on Syrian soil on Tuesday, after being hit by a missile from a Turkish F-16 fighter jet.

The Turkish military said it sent several warnings to the jet before firing, some 17 seconds after the plane entered Turkish air space.

A surviving Russian pilot said he had received no such warning, and was adamant they did not stray out of Syrian air space.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected calls by Russia to apologise, saying Turkey does not need to say sorry for the violation of its airspace.

However, he told France 24 television: "If we had known it was a Russian plane, maybe we would have warned it differently".

A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber

A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber Photo: AFP

But Mr Putin insisted it was "impossible" for Turkey not to have known it was shooting at a Russian plane. "It's got insignia, and you can see that very clearly".

He went on: "In advance, in accordance with our agreement with the US, we gave information on where our planes would be working - at what altitude, and in what areas. Turkey is part of that coalition and they had to know it was the Russian airforce working in that area.

"If it was an American aircraft, would they have struck?"

Mr Putin told the news conference he was ready to co-operate more closely with the US-led coalition "but of course incidents like the destruction of our aircraft and the deaths of our servicemen... are absolutely unacceptable".

- BBC