November 25, 2015•Update: November 26, 2015
ANKARA
Two high-ranking Russian military officers have visited the Turkish General Staff following the shooting down of a Russian warplane.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the Turkish military said the defense and army attaches of the Russian embassy visited the headquarters in Ankara on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Every question about the incident has been answered,” the general staff said, adding that images from radar displays had been shown to the Russians.
“It was stated that [Turkey] was ready to share any kind of information.”
According to the statement, Turkey did not know the identity of the SU-24 bomber when it was shot down and made intense efforts to rescue the two pilots.
Both the Russian and Syrian air forces operate SU-24s.
Russian military officials in Moscow had been contacted and Turkey has said it is willing to cooperate, the statement added.
The SU-24 was shot down after being intercepted by two patrolling Turkish F-16s acting under Turkey’s rules of engagement on Tuesday.
The Russian aircraft was warned about its violation of Turkish airspace 10 times within five minutes before it was shot down. NATO has confirmed the accuracy of information shared by Turkey about the violation.
In early October, Russian warplanes twice breached Turkish airspace. Russian officials apologized and pledged that no such incident would be repeated.
