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Turkish military releases recording of ‘warnings’ sent to Russian plane

ABC

ABC

The Turkish military has released what is says are a series of audio recordings of warnings issued to a Russian jet before it was shot down near the Syrian border.

“This is Turkish Air Force speaking on guard,” a voice in one of the recordings can be heard saying in English, repeating the message several times.

“You are approaching Turkish airspace. Change your heading south immediately.”

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The surviving pilot of the downed Russian bomber said earlier that no warning had been given and the aircraft did not violate the Turkish air space, although Turkey insists that it gave 10 warnings in five minutes.

Turkey said its F-16 jets shot down the Russian plane under its rules of engagement, while Moscow says the act was a “planned provocation”.

Turkey’s military said it has invited Russian military attaches to its headquarters and explained that Ankara shot down the jet because its rules of engagement went into effect after the plane did not respond to its warnings.

In a written statement, the Turkish armed forces said it had made great efforts to find and rescue the pilots of the plane and that it had also called military authorities in Moscow and expressed readiness for “all kinds of cooperation”.

Russia has sent an advanced missile system to Syria to protect its jets operating in Syria and pledged its air force would keep flying missions near Turkish air space.

Underscoring the message, Russian forces launched a heavy bombardment against insurgent-held areas in Latakia on Wednesday, near where the jet was downed, rebels and a monitoring group said.

Russia also released what it claims is the flight path the jet took, directly contrasting with Turkey’s version of events.

ABC

Turkey and Russia have released conflicting maps showing the flight path of the downed Russian jet.

Moscow to ‘seriously reconsider’ ties with Ankara

The downing of the jet on Tuesday was one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member and Russia for half a century, and further complicated international efforts to battle Islamic State militants in Syria.

Turkey said the jet had encroached on Turkish air space and was warned repeatedly to change course, but Russian officials have said the plane was at no time over Turkey.

The crew ejected and one pilot was shot dead by rebels as he parachuted to the ground.

A Russian marine sent to recover the crew was also killed in an attack by rebels.

The surviving Russian pilot, who was rescued by Russian and Syrian forces, insisted that he never entered Turkish air space.

parachute down

The pilots parachuted from the plane before the crash. Getty

“We were flying at an altitude of 6,000 metres. The weather was clear. As we say ‘million to million’,” Captain Konstantin Murakhtin told Russian media.

“Before the blast of the rocket, our flight was totally under my control.

“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.”

Captain Murakhtin also rejected claims that he was warned by the Turkish Air Force, before his plane was shot down.

“In actual fact, there were no warnings at all, neither by radio, nor visually,” he said.

“There were no contacts whatsoever.”

Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan made no apology, saying his nation had simply been defending its own security and the “rights of our brothers in Syria”.

He made clear Turkish policy would not change.

Russian officials expressed fury over Turkey’s action and spoke of retaliatory measures that were likely to include curbing travel by Russian tourists to Turkish resorts and some restrictions on trade.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov described it as a “planned act” and said it would impact efforts towards a political solution in Syria.

Moscow would “seriously reconsider” its relations with Ankara, he said.

Jets believed to be Russian also hit a depot for trucks waiting to go through a major rebel-controlled border crossing with Turkey, Bab al-Salam, the head of the crossing said.

Syrian jets have struck the area before, but if confirmed to have been carried out by Russia, it would be one of Moscow’s closest air strikes to Turkish soil, targeting a humanitarian corridor into rebel-held Syria and a lifeline for ordinary Syrians crossing to Turkey.

But the Russian response was also carefully calibrated, indicating Moscow did not want to jeopardise its main objective in the region: to rally international support for its view on how the conflict in Syria should be resolved.

“We have no intention of fighting a war with Turkey,” Mr Lavrov said.

Mr Erdogan also said Ankara had no intention of escalating tensions with Russia.

Speaking on a trip to the Ural mountains city of Nizhny Tagil, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the despatch of an advanced weapons system to Russia’s Khmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia province.

“I hope that this, along with other measures that we are taking, will be enough to ensure (the safety) of our flights,” Mr Putin told reporters, in an apparent warning to Turkey not to try to shoot down any more Russian planes.

 

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