Turkey releases recording of warning to down jet

Military publishes audio where voice is heard
saying, "You are approaching Turkish airspace,
change your heading".



The Turkish army has released what it said
was audio recordings of warnings to a Russian
warplane before it was shot down along the
Syrian border.
A voice in one of the recordings can be heard
saying in English: "You are approaching Turkish
airspace, change your heading".
According to the Turkish armed forces, the
warnings were issued by the Diyarbakir airbase
and not by pilots.
The release of the recordings late on
Wednesday came after the rescued pilot of the
Russian jet said that the plane had received no
warnings from the Turkish air force



. "There was no warning, not by radio exchange
nor visually. There was no contact at all," pilot
Konstantin Murakhtin told Russian journalists
at Moscow's airbase in Syria after being
rescued by special forces.
Murakhtin, whose crewmate was shot and
killed after parachuting from the burning jet,
said 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," he said.
'Planned provocation'
The Russian Sukhoi Su-24 warplane was shot
down on Tuesday for allegedly violating Turkish
airspace.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin said on
Wednesday that Murakhtin and those involved
in the rescue operation will be decorated, while
the second pilot will posthumously be given
Russia's highest award for valour, the Hero of
Russia medal.


Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov described the downing of the warplane
by Turkey as a "planned provocation" .
He said Moscow would seriously reconsider its
relations with Ankara over the incident but said
the two countries would not go to war.


"Our attitude to the Turkish people has not
changed. We have questions over the action of
Turkey's current leadership," he said.
Turning down the heat
Turkey has defended its actions, saying that
shooting down the plane was necessary for
security.


Speaking at an Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation economy meeting in Istanbul on
Wednesday, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said that his country did not want an
escalation of the situation.
"Turkey is never on the side of tension or
hostility. We're always for peace and
diplomacy. And we will maintain that attitude.
We will not tolerate our borders being violated.
And no one should expect us to. We do not
have any intension to escalate any situation,
we are only defending our security," Erdogan
said.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies