Turks down Russian jet; 1 pilot killed

Airspace breach disputed, but NATO backs Ankara

Russia “will never tolerate such atrocities as happened today,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.
Russia “will never tolerate such atrocities as happened today,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.

MOSCOW -- Turkey shot down a Russian warplane Tuesday that it said ignored repeated warnings and crossed into its airspace from Syria.


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AP/Haberturk TV

A Russian Su-24 plummets toward the ground Tuesday in this video image taken from Haberturk TV. The plane was shot down by the Turkish military after it briefly entered Turkish airspace, officials said.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A map showing the area Turkey claims Russian jet crossed into Turkish airspace.

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AP

In an address Tuesday at the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his forces have exercised restraint over Russian incursions in Turkish territory but that it was necessary to defend the country’s borders.

At least one of the two pilots was killed, and Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced what he called a "stab in the back" and warned of "significant consequences."

The shoot-down -- the first time in half a century that a NATO member has downed a Russian plane -- prompted an emergency meeting of the alliance.

"As we have repeatedly made clear, we stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the territorial integrity of our NATO ally, Turkey," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference after the meeting of the alliance's decision-making North Atlantic Council, which was called at Turkey's request.

The pilots of the downed Su-24 ejected, but one was killed by Syrian rebel fire from the ground as he parachuted down, said the Russian general staff, insisting the Russian jet had been in Syrian airspace at the time.

A Russian marine stationed in Syria also died during a search-and-rescue operation to find the pilots. The marine was aboard an Mi-8 helicopter that was forced to land after coming under gunfire, according to the Russian general staff. What happened to the warplane's second pilot was not addressed.

Stoltenberg urged "calm and de-escalation" and fresh contacts between Moscow and Ankara. Russia has long been at odds with NATO, which it accuses of encroaching on Russia's borders, as well as with Turkey's determination to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, a longtime Moscow ally.

Flash points run from as far back as the NATO-led bombings in Bosnia in the 1990s to NATO's support for Ukraine last year against pro-Moscow separatists.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said Turkey "has a right to defend its territory and its airspace."

At a news conference with French President Francois Hollande, Obama said the downing underscored the "ongoing problem" with Russia's military operations in Syria, where the Russians have been targeting groups near the Turkish border. Calling Russia an "outlier" in the global fight against the Islamic State group, he said that if Moscow were to concentrate its airstrikes on Islamic State targets, mistakes "would be less likely to occur."

The White House said late Tuesday that Obama spoke with Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss the downing of the Russian plane. In the call, Obama expressed U.S. and NATO support for Turkey's right to defend its sovereignty, and the leaders also agreed on the importance of de-escalating the situation and pursuing arrangements to ensure it doesn't happen again, the White House said.

On Sept. 30, Russia began a campaign of airstrikes in Syria, which Russia says is aimed at destroying fighters of the Islamic State group but which Western critics contend are bolstering Assad's forces.

Before Tuesday's shoot-down, Russia and the West appeared to be moving toward an understanding of their common strategic goal of eradicating the Islamic State, which gained momentum after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, as well as the Oct. 31 bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai desert. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Turkey said its fighter pilots acted after two Russian Su-24 bombers ignored numerous warnings that they were nearing and then entering Turkish airspace. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Turkey said the Russian warplanes violated its airspace "to a depth of 1.36 miles and 1.15 miles ... for 17 seconds" just after 9:24 a.m.

It said one of the planes then left Turkish airspace and the other one was fired at by Turkish F-16s "in accordance with the rules of engagement" and crashed on the Syrian side of the border.

Russia insisted the plane stayed over Syria, where it was supporting ground action by Syrian troops against rebels. Rebel forces fired at the two parachuting pilots as they descended, and one died, said Jahed Ahmad, a spokesman for the 10th Coast Division rebel group.

Putin denounced what he called a "stab in the back by the terrorists' accomplices" and warned of "significant consequences" for Russian-Turkish relations. Hours later, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov canceled a planned visit to Turkey today.

The Kremlin has not outlined any other actions in response, but some Russian lawmakers have called for retaliation against Turkey by evacuating Russian tourists from popular vacation destinations.

Russia "will never tolerate such atrocities as happened today, and we hope that the international community will find the strength to join forces and fight this evil," Putin said.

Putin said that instead of "immediately making the necessary contact with us, the Turkish side turned to their partners in NATO for talks on this incident. It's as if we shot down the Turkish plane and not they, ours. Do they want to put NATO at the service of Islamic State?"

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu insisted his country had the right to take "all kinds of measures" against border violations and called on the international community to work toward "extinguishing the fire that is burning in Syria."

Despite the harsh words, some analysts believe that Russia and Turkey have reasons not to let the situation escalate, citing economic and energy ties and the countries' common opposition to the Islamic State.

"Relations have been very strained between Russia and Turkey of late, so Moscow will be trying its utmost to contain the damage this might cause," said Natasha Kuhrt, a lecturer in international peace and security at King's College London.

A Turkish military statement said the Russian plane entered Turkish airspace over the town of Yayladagi in Hatay province. Turkish officials released what they said was the radar image of the path the Russian plane took, showing it flying across a stretch of Turkish territory in the country's southernmost tip.

Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad, said the U.S. heard communication between Turkish and Russian pilots and could confirm that Turkish pilots issued 10 verbal warnings before the plane was shot down. At the NATO meeting Tuesday, a Turkish official played recordings of the warnings Turkish F-16 pilots had issued to the Russian aircraft. The Russian pilots did not reply.

A U.S. defense official in Washington said the Russian plane flew across a 2-mile section of Turkish airspace before it was shot down, meaning it was in Turkish skies for a matter of seconds. The official, who was not authorized to discuss details, spoke on condition of anonymity.

Turkey has voiced concern over Russia's bombing of ethnic Turkmen areas in Syria and complained that the Russian operations have complicated the possibility of creating a safe zone in northern Syria to protect civilians as well as moderate rebels fighting Assad.

Syrian Turkmen are Syrian citizens of Turkish ethnicity who have lived in Syria since Ottoman times and have coexisted with Syrian Arabs for hundreds of years. They were among the first to take up arms against Syrian government forces as Turkey lent its support to rebels seeking to topple Assad.

In late 2012, they united under the Syrian Turkmen Assembly, a coalition of Turkmen parties that represents Syrian Turkmens in the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition opposition group. The military wing of the assembly is called the Syrian Turkmen Brigades and aims to protect Turkmen areas from government forces and the Islamic State group.

Turkey has vowed to support the Syrian Turkmen, and Erdogan on Tuesday criticized Russian actions in the Turkmen regions, saying there were no Islamic State fighters in the area.

Turkey has complained repeatedly that Russian planes supporting Assad are straying across the border. On Friday, Turkey summoned the Russian ambassador demanding that Russia stop operations in the Turkmen region.

In a speech Tuesday, Erdogan said there would have been more scenarios like Tuesday's if Turkey had not exercised such restraint.

"The reason why worse incidents have not taken place in the past regarding Syria is the cool-headedness of Turkey," he said in a speech in Ankara. "Nobody should doubt that we made our best efforts to avoid this latest incident. But everyone should respect the right of Turkey to defend its borders."

Last month, Turkish jets shot down an unidentified drone that it said had violated Turkey's airspace.

The country changed its rules of engagement a few years ago after Syria shot down a Turkish plane. According to the new rules, Turkey said, it would consider all "elements" approaching from Syria an enemy threat and would act accordingly.

After earlier accusations of Russian intrusion into Turkish airspace, the U.S. European Command on Nov. 6 deployed six U.S. Air Force F-15 fighters from their base in Britain to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to help the NATO-member country secure its skies.

Information for this article was contributed by Jim Heintz, Suzan Fraser, Nataliya Vasilyeva, Robert Burns, Bassem Mroue, John-Thor Dahlburg and Edith M. Lederer of The Associated Press; by Neil Macfarquhar and Steven Erlanger of The New York Times; and by Hugh Naylor, Andrew Roth and Daniela Deane of The Washington Post.

A Section on 11/25/2015

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