The Turkish army on Wednesday released a series of audio recordings of apparent warnings issued to a Russian jet before it was downed near the Syrian border.
“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 surviving pilot of the Su-24 bomber shot down on Tuesday said earlier that no warning had been given and the aircraft did not violate the Turkish air space, although Turkey insists that it gave 10 warnings in five minutes.
“There was no warning, not by radio exchange nor visually. There was no contact at all,” navigator Konstantin Murakhtin told Russian journalists at Moscow’s base in Syria after being rescued by special forces.
Dressed in khaki and speaking with his back to the camera, Murakhtin echoed the Kremlin’s version of events, saying that the plane could not have entered Turkish airspace “even for one second”.
“I could perfectly see on the map and on the ground where the border was and where we were,” Murakhtin said, standing out on the tarmac of the base. “We were flying at an altitude of 6,000 metres, the weather was clear.”
Murakhtin gave no details of the rescue operation that Russia’s military said involved its special forces working alongside Syrian troops.
“I feel good in general. The military doctors work miracles,” he said.
“I am waiting impatiently to be released by the doctors so I can immediately return to service. I will ask the commanders to keep me at the airbase.”
He added: “I have to pay back the debt for my commander.”
Turkey says its F-16 jets shot down the Russian plane under its rules of engagement, while Moscow says the act was a “planned provocation.”
The US military meanwhile backed the Turkish claim saying that Turkish pilots warned the Russian jet 10 times but failed to get a response.
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.
