The Russian ambassador to Ankara, Andrey Karlov, states there are three conditions for overcoming the crisis in Russian-Turkish relations: Ankara must apologize, find and punish the guilty persons, and pay compensation to Russia for the shot-down Su-24. However, the Turkish Foreign Ministry says that Turkey doesn’t plan to compensate the damage to Russia. Ankara demands guarantees from Moscow that Russian aircraft won’t violate Turkish borders. The Russian bomber was shot down by a Turkish fighter aircraft F-16 on November 24th. Moscow stated that the Su-24 flew over Syrian territory, while Ankara was sure that the aircraft broke into the air space of Turkey.
The new wave of information was published in the Turkish media, where journalists compared the situation over the Su-24 with the tragedy which took place on September 1st 1983, when the South Korean Boeing was shot down over the territory of the Soviet Union. Moreover, these publications contained references to high-ranking officials of the Turkish government, who also confirmed the parallels and compared these situations.
“Certainly, you can find a lot in common: an aircraft, sky, people died. But it was announced by the mass media and officials. You need to understand what you are saying. It is just a simple skill to use the Internet, which can help you understand that it is silly to compare the two situations,” Maria Zakharova, Director of the Information Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, says.
She reminds that the Korean plane was flying without any navigation lights. It also didn’t answer requests and didn’t try to communicate with the traffic controller service. “It would be nice for the Turkish side to familiarize themselves with the period of time when the South Korean aircraft was over Soviet territory. It would be good for the Turkish party to know how many times the aircraft crossed the border and back again. Soviet air defense fighters were trying to assist in the withdrawal of the South Korean Boeing to the nearest airfield. And if the Turkish side compares the two situations we would like it to analyze the actions of its own aircraft on November 24th 2015,” Zakharova says.
There are a series of signals by fighter planes to force an aircraft that has violated airspace to land, or to change its route – the signals of shaking wings and sidelights flashing. “All these things were done in relation to the South Korean Boeing. The data is available on the Internet and it can easily be found. Preventive fire was carried out several times in the direction of the plane a few minutes before opening fire for effect. According to open sources, 243 shells were used. Respected Turkish colleagues, if you compare these situations you should do it objectively. Tell the Turkish audience what happened then, and what happened now,” Zakharova urges.
