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Turkey knew it was Russian aircraft, Putin says
The last has surely not been heard following the growing tension between Turkey and Russia over the downing of a fighter jet inside the Syrian territory.
Speaking in Moscow Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that there is no way Turkey could not have identified the aircraft because Russia had informed the United States, Turkey’s ally, of its flight path, and said it was “not possible” the Turkish air force didn’t recognize the Russian aircraft.
Putin told reporters in Moscow that the strike was unexpected.
“It did not even come into our mind that we could be struck by a party that we considered to be our ally,” he said. “We considered Turkey to be a friendly country.
“Turkey is a member of this (U.S.-led) coalition and must know that Russians are working there,” he said.
Read also: Tension rises as Russia deploys anti-aircraft missiles to Syria
Earlier on, an audio released by Turkey’s military proving it’s claim that it did not recognise the downed aircraft and which also captured purported warnings issued by Turkish pilots to the crew of the jet was described as ‘habitual fake’ by Russia’s Defence Ministry in a tweet on Thursday.
In two separate claims by leaders of both countries, Putin has said the plane was attacked a kilometer inside Syrian territory, while Erdogan says it crashed in Turkey, injuring two people, after being in Turkish airspace for 17 seconds.
“We knew there were two aircraft. One aircraft went back into Syria, and the second one was still in Turkish airspace and it was shot down by our aircraft,” Erdogan said.
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