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The attack on the Russian jet will have tragic consequences to Russia-Turkey ties, Putin

24 November 2015 14:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA. Russia's Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft was downed with an air-to-air missile launched from a Turkish F-16 fighter, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.

Speaking ahead of his meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Sochi, the Russian leader said the Su-24 plane crash in Syria goes beyond normal struggle against terrorism, and it is "a stab in Russia’s back delivered by terrorist accomplices," the Guardian reported.

“This event is beyond the normal framework of fighting against terrorism. Of course our military is doing heroic work against terrorism... But the loss today is a stab in the back, carried out by the accomplices of terrorists. I can’t describe it in any other way. The Russian bomber was shot down over Syria by an air-to-air surface fired from a Turkish F-16 plane when the bomber was at an altitude of 6,000 meters at a distance of 1 km from the Turkish bomber. This is obvious. They are fighting terrorists in the northern areas around Latakia. Since Isis has such huge resources of hundreds of millions and billions of dollars coming from illicit oil sales, and they are protected by the armed forces of other states, then it’s clear why they are so brazen, why they are killing people, why they are carrying out terrorist attacks throughout the world including in the heart of Europe.

The attack on the Russian jet will have tragic consequences to Russia-Turkey ties. We have always treated Turkey as a friendly state. I don’t know who was interested in what happened today, certainly not us,” he said.