Turkey's stab in the back of Russia, as Russian President Vladimir Putin correctly described it, will not be left without response, Maria Zakharova, Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, has told ArmInfo.
On November 24, a Turkish F-16 fighting falcon shot down a Russian Su-24 plane near the Syrian-Turkish border. The two pilots were able to parachute out of the plane before it crashed. One of them was killed while landing, the other one was saved by the Syrian special forces and is in the Russian base in Syria. One more Russian serviceman was killed in the course of the rescue operation.
"This tragic incident cannot help affecting the Russian-Turkish relations. This is already obvious. We perfectly understand the historical and economic ties between our nations, which should live in peace and contribute to our cooperation. However, that unfriendly step (to put it mildly) will undoubtedly have a negative effect on the relations between our countries," Zakharova stressed.
In Zakharova's word, the downing of the Russian plane was not by accident or by mistake, but it was a deliberate act that claimed the Russian citizens' lives. Zakharova pointed out that any Russian's death is a tragedy, however, she recalled that the Russian servicemen were in Syria to conduct a mission aimed at ensuring and strengthening the security throughout the world.
"We have repeatedly spoken about it at various levels. No one doubts that the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces' operation in Syria aims to combat international terrorism," she says, noting that hindering that fight looks strange, to put it mildly.