MOSCOW, Russia – Turkey's military said Wednesday, November 25, it did not know the warplane it shot down on the Syrian border was Russian, adding that it was ready for "all kinds of cooperation" after Moscow called the incident a "planned provocation".
In a statement issued after tensions surged between Ankara and Moscow and Turkey's NATO allies appealed for calm, the Turkish armed forces said they had made significant efforts to find and rescue the two pilots after shooting down the jet on Tuesday, November 24.
The sole surviving pilot said he had received no warning and the aircraft did not violate Turkish air space, prompting the Turkish army to release audio recordings it said showed the Russian jet was repeatedly warned to change course.
"This is Turkish Air Force speaking on guard. You are approaching Turkish airspace. Change your heading south immediately," a voice in one of the recordings can be heard saying in English, repeating the message several times.
The downing has threatened ties between two major rival players in the Syrian war and raised fears it could escalate into a wider geopolitical conflict.
Ankara and Moscow are on opposing sides in the 4-year Syrian conflict, with Turkey wanting to see the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad while Russia is one of his last remaining allies.
While both sides have given conflicting versions of what led to the jet being shot down, they have been at pains to stress they want to avoid a military escalation in the already volatile region.
Turkey's armed forces said in a statement later on Wednesday that they had invited Russian defense and military attaches to their headquarters in the Turkish capital to explain the circumstances surrounding the incident.
"The nationality of the plane was not known... and the rules of engagement were automatically used" after the plane did not respond to the warnings, the military said.
It added that it had been in touch with Moscow's military authorities to express readiness for "all kinds of cooperation".
'No war'
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Wednesday he had "serious doubts about this being an unpremeditated act, it really looks like a planned provocation".
But he added: "We do not plan to go to war with Turkey, our attitude toward the Turkish people has not changed."
His comments came a day after a furious Russian President Vladimir Putin branded the downing of the jet a "stab in the back committed by accomplices of terrorists", and told Russians not to visit Turkey, a key tourist destination.
In Moscow several hundred activists hurled stones and eggs at Turkey's embassy and brandished anti-Turkish placards in a brief protest over the jet downing.
In another apparent reaction to the incident, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow would send its most hi-tech S-400 air defense system to its airbase near the Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakia.
Turkish media, citing military sources, reported the Turkish air force had also stepped up border patrols with 18 F-16s.
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sought to turn down the heat over the incident, insisting Ankara was simply defending its border.
"We have no intention to escalate this incident. We are just defending our security and the rights of our brothers," Erdogan said.
Turkey insists it gave the downed jet 10 warnings in the space of five minutes, an account backed up by its NATO ally the United States which spearheads a coalition against Islamic State jihadists in Syria.
'No contact at all'
Turkey's ambassador to the UN, Halit Cevik, said in a letter to the Security Council that two planes were involved in the incident.
He said both had flown 1.36 miles (2.19 kilometers) into Turkish airspace for 17 seconds in a final violation at 0724 GMT and that one was shot down and the other left Turkish airspace.
Moscow said Russian and Syrian special forces had rescued one of the two Russian pilots who ejected from the Su-24 bomber as it plunged to the earth in a fireball. The second airman and a soldier sent to rescue him died.
In his first interview, rescued pilot Konstantin Murakhtin told Russian state media there had been no prior warning before his plane was shot down by Turkish F-16 fighters.
"There was no warning, not by radio exchange nor visually. There was no contact at all," Murakhtin said at Moscow's base in Syria, with his back to the cameras.
Putin said Murakhtin would be given a medal, along with those involved in the rescue operation and the second pilot who was shot dead by rebels after parachuting out.
There are fears the shooting could derail efforts to bring peace to Syria that were gaining tentative momentum following the November 13 Paris attacks claimed by ISIS extremists who control swathes of northern Syria.
Russian warplanes carried out heavy raids in Syria's northern Latakia province on Wednesday, the same area where the jet was downed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
French President Francois Hollande flies to Moscow on Thursday to meet Putin, with both struggling to make good on demands for a broader coalition to fight ISIS. – Maria Panina with Dilay Gundogan in Istanbul, Turkey, AFP / Rappler.com