DUSHANBE, November 25, 2015, Asia-Plus – A speech by the Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Lieutenant-General Sergei Rudskoy on provocative actions of the Turkish Air Force was posted on Russian Defense Ministry’s website.    

“Today, at 10:24 (MSK) an F-16 fighter of the Turkish Air Force shot down Su-24M tactical bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which was performing a combat sortie over the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.  The fighter supposedly performed the strike with IR homing headed short-range missile,” Rudskoy said on November 24.

According to him, the objective monitoring data confirmed that the Turkish warplane did not make any attempt to establish a communication or visual contact with the Russian bomber. 

The missile hit the Su-24M aircraft over the territory of Syria.  The bomber crash place is on the territory of Syria four kilometers far from the borderline.  The objective monitoring data shows that the Russian aircraft did not cross the Turkish borderline.

Data received from the Syrian Air Defense Forces confirmed this fact as well, the Russian military said.

Moreover, radar reconnaissance data, which was received from the Hmeymim airbase, registered Syrian airspace violation by the attacking aircraft of the Turkish Air Force. 

This fact is assessed as a flagrant violation of international law with extremely grave consequences and the direct breach of Memorandum on air incident prevention and flight safety over the Syrian Arab Republic, which had been signed by the USA and relevant for all countries of the coalition, including Turkey.

That is why the Turkish party started urgent consultations with the NATO instead of immediate contacting with the Russian Defense Ministry.

Defense Attaché of Turkey in the Russian Federation was presented a decisive protest against the actions of the Turkish Air Force, which had led to the loss of the Russian aircraft.

It is to be mentioned that from the beginning of the operation, the Russian Defense Ministry had established a direct telephone line between the National Center for State Defense Control of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of National Defense of Turkey.  But it has no practical use due to the fault of the Turkish party.

The two Russian pilots managed to eject their Su-24 plane, Rudskoy said.  According to the preliminary data, fire from the ground killed one of the pilots.

Two Russian Mi-8 helicopters performed a search-and-rescue operation, but one of them was damaged by small arms fire and made an emergency landing, the Russian military said. One Russian marine was killed.

“The helicopter was destroyed by mortar fire conducted from the territory controlled by illegal, armed groups,” Russian general noted.

Future Russia airstrikes “will be carried out only under cover of fighter aircraft,” Rudskoy said.

Also, the Russian cruiser Moskva will go to the shore zone of Syrian port of Latakia, and the military “warns that all the potentially dangerous targets will be destroyed,” Rudskoy said.

Contacts with Turkey will be terminated at the military level, headed.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday he would not visit Turkey as planned on November 25 following Turkey''s downing of a Russian fighter jet.

Lavrov, speaking to reporters in the southern Russian city of Sochi, advised Russians not to visit Turkey and said the threat of terrorism there was the no less than in Egypt, where a bomb attack brought down a Russian passenger plane last month.