Turkey to return body of Russian downed bomber pilot
Turkey will give to Russian diplomats on Sunday the body of
Russia's Sukhoi Su-24M bomber pilot, Igor Mityakov, press attache of the
Russian embassy said on Sunday.
"We have been confirmed today from the Hatay province
to Ankara they will deliver the body of Hero of Russia Oleg Peshkov," he
said, reports Tass.
"The embassy’s military attache will be on the flight
next to the body. At the aerodrome in Ankara, Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov
and the embassy’s representatives will meet the plane. The date and time of the
body’s delivery to Russia are being discussed now."
Earlier on Sunday, Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
told reporters they had taken the body of the Russian pilot and will give it to
Russian diplomats. He said at night Orthodox priests had made necessary
devotions.
An F-16 fighter jet from the Turkish Air Force shot down a
Russian Su-24M bomber on Tuesday. Ankara claims the Su-24M bomber violated the
Turkish air space in the area of the border with Syria.
However, Russia’s Defence Ministry has said the Su-24M plane
stayed exclusively over the Syrian territory and "there was no violation
of the Turkish air space."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the attack
on the bomber will have "serious consequences" for the
Russian-Turkish relations. According to Putin, the Turkish Air Force’s attack
on the Russian combat plane that took part in the operation against terrorists
in Syria and posed no threat to Turkey is a "stab in the back of
Russia."
The crew of the Su-24M bomber managed to eject but one of
the pilots was killed by gunfire from the ground. The second pilot was rescued
and taken to the Russian air base.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said, speaking at the
ceremony of the presentation of credentials by new foreign ambassadors on
Thursday that Turkey was steering the relations into the gridlock as it neither
apologised, nor offered to repair the damage, nor promised to punish those
responsible,
"We have not heard yet apologies from the highest
political level of Turkey. Nor do we hear proposals to repair the damage or
promises to punish the perpetrators for the committed crime," Putin said.
"One gets the impression that the Turkish leadership is steering
deliberately the Russian-Turkish relations into the dead end, which is
regrettable," he added.
In an interview with CNN, Erdogan warned Moscow that Turkey
would take steps if its warplane were downed by the Russian S-400 missile
system in case it violated the Syrian airspace. "I think if there is a
party that needs to apologize, it is not us," he said. "Those who
violated our airspace are the ones who need to apologize.".
Comments
Post a Comment