Destroy those who ordered Turkish pilots to attack Russian plane: Russia’s ruling party MP

Russia should find out the identities of the Turkish pilots who downed the Russian Su-24 fighter jet and destroy those who ordered them to carry out the attack, a Russian member of the parliament belonging to the ruling party urged today.

“To start with, as a minimum, it is necessary to establish the identity of the Turkish pilots responsible for the cowardly attack on our aircraft and those who gave them orders, and destroy them,” Shamsail Saraliev of the United Russia party who represents Chechnya in the State Duma − the lower house − tweeted.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the former leader of Saraliev’s party, had accused Turkey stabbing Russia in the back to protect the Islamic State’s oil sales and insisted that the plane was shot down over Syria by a Turkish F-16 fighter that made an incursion into Syrian airspace.

“We have long been recording the movement of a large amount of oil and petroleum products to Turkey from ISIS-occupied territories,” Putin said. “This explains the significant funding the terrorists are receiving. Now they are stabbing us in the back by hitting our planes that are fighting terrorism.”

But Turkey continued insist that the Russian warplane was in Turkish airspace when it was shot down killing at least one pilot.

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A letter sent to the UN Security Council by Turkey’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations alleges that the Russian Su-24 spent 17 seconds inside Turkish territory before it was shot down.

NATO announced that the organization agreed with Turkey’s claim and pledged to stand in solidarity with Ankara.

“The Allied assessments we have got from several Allies during the day are consistent with information we have been provided with from Turkey,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporter at press conference. “So the information we have from other Allies is consistent with what we have got from Turkey.”

Military authorities in Moscow disagree with NATO’s assessment, and showed an animation of the flight paths of the Turkish and Russian aircraft alleging that the former made an incursion into Syrian airspace to down the latter.

Russian Military showed an animation of the flight paths of the Turkish and Russian aircraft

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is the commander in chief of the nation’s armed forces, defended the decision to shoot down the Russian plane saying that his country had the right to defend its national airspace.

But Russian state media accused the Turkish President’s son Bilal Erdoğan of being involved in the Islamic State’s oil smuggling racket, an accusation that has been echoed by Turkey’s main opposition Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP).