Turkey downs Russian warplane

Putin: Turkey's downing of Russian warplane is 'a stab in our back'

By Nick Gass

Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on Tuesday, fueling fears that Syria's civil war has become a geopolitical flashpoint that could explode outside its borders, with Russian President Vladimir Putin declaring it "a stab in our back."

"Today’s loss is linked with a stab in our back delivered by terrorism accomplices," Putin said, according to Russia's TASS news agency. "I can’t characterize otherwise what has happened today."

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a speech in Ankara his country would do "whatever is necessary" to keep the country safe, repeating that Turkey has the right to respond if its airspace is violated, according to Reuters.

For his part, Putin said that the pilots and aircraft posed no threat to Turkey. "This is obvious. They were conducting an operation against ISIL," Putin said at a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Sochi.

As world leaders scrambled to prevent an escalation, including an "extraordinary" NATO meeting later on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov canceled a planned visit to Turkey on Wednesday, according to Reuters. He also advised Russians to not travel to Turkey.

In an earlier statement, Russia's Defense Ministry said it was investigating "the circumstances of the crash," adding that the ministry "would like to stress that the plane was over the Syrian territory throughout the flight."

According to a Turkish military statement issued before the jet's identity was known, however, it was flying over Turkish territory. The Russian and Turkish accounts also differed on how the plane was shot down: Russia says it was downed by artillery fire, while Turkey says its F-16s fired their weapons.

"On Nov. 24, 2015 at around 09.20 a.m, a plane whose nationality is not known violated the Turkish airspace despite several warnings (10 times within five minutes) in the area of Yayladagi, Hatary," the statement said. "Two F-16 planes on aerial patrol duty in the area intervened against the plane in question in accordance with the rules of engagement at 09.24 a.m."

A flight radar track of the Russian warcraft released by the Turkish military showed the Sukhoi-24 plane briefly following a path along the southernmost point of the Turkish border.

Video of the jet's final moments is inconclusive, only showing it catch flame and crash behind a hill. The Associated Press reported that the rebel group that captured one of the ejected Russian pilots said he was dead upon landing.

At Turkey's request, NATO countries in the North Atlantic will hold an "extraordinary meeting" later Tuesday in Brussels to discuss the incident, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting an alliance official.

A spokesman for Putin called the shoot-down a "very serious incident."

"It is just impossible to say something without having full information," Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Reuters' report early Tuesday.

Russia's stepped-up involvement in Syria, which Moscow has characterized as aimed against the Islamic State, has set off alarm bells in Western capitals; the United States has criticized Russia for what it says are indiscriminate airstrikes aimed at bolstering Syria's President Bashar Assad.

The latest incident comes just days after Turkey summoned Russia's ambassador following "intensive" bombing from Russian warplanes over northern Syria, according to a Reuters report last Friday.

"It was stressed that the Russian side's actions were not a fight against terror, but they bombed civilian Turkmen villages and this could lead to serious consequences," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said, according to the report.

A NATO statement on Oct. 5 warned that Russia's engagement had reached a "dangerous level," noting several violations of the airspace of Turkey, a NATO member.

"Allies strongly protest these violations of Turkish sovereign airspace, and condemn these incursions into and violations of NATO airspace," the statement read. "Allies also note the extreme danger of such irresponsible behaviour. They call on the Russian Federation to cease and desist, and immediately explain these violations."

The downed Russian jet comes at an awkward time for French President François Hollande, who called on the United States and Russia to "join forces" after the terrorist attacks in Paris and is due to visit Moscow later this week. Hollande, who is meeting with Obama in Washington on Tuesday, was reportedly planning to press his American counterpart on cooperating with Putin to destroy ISIL's safe havens in Syria.

The United States has ruled out any formal cooperation with Russia due, U.S. officials say, to Russian forces' attacks on Syrian rebel groups that have nothing to do with terrorism.

"So far, over the last several weeks, when they started taking strikes in Syria, their principal targets have been the moderate opposition that they felt threatened Assad," Obama said at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur this week. "Their principal goal appeared to be -- if you follow the strikes that they took -- to fortify the position of the Assad regime. And that does not add to our efforts against ISIL. In some ways, it strengthens it because ISIL is also fighting many of those groups that the Russians were hitting."

“If Russia is serious about going after ISIL and wants to make that their focus, then that’s a conversation that we’re still willing to have,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said last week. “And neither President Obama nor Secretary Kerry has ruled out the possibility of cooperation in the future if, in fact, that’s where Russia wants to take things militarily.”

The U.S., meanwhile, has made Russia dropping its support for Assad a condition of any cooperation.

“Russia has not officially committed to a transition of Assad moving out but they did agree to a political transition process,” Obama said in Kuala Lumpur. “And I think we’ll find out over the next several weeks whether or not we can bring about that change in perspective with the Russians.”