As Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu has claimed that the Turkish military shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Turkey Syria border today, tension is building.
“Everyone must know that it is our international right and national duty to take any measure against whoever violates our air or land borders,” Davutoglu said today.
Turkey had warned Russia twice in the past month of flying over its airspace culminating in today’s shooting down of a fighter jet.
Russian President Vladmir Putin hasn’t taken too kindly to the shooting and has called it “a stab in the back”.
Calling Turkey ” accomplices of terrorists”, Putin said in a televised address, “Our plane was shot down over the territory of Syria by an air-to-air missile from a Turkish F-16 jet. It fell in Syrian territory four kilometres from the border with Turkey. Our pilots and our plane did not in any way threaten Turkey.”
Already, both nations are providing differing accounts of where the plane was shot down. Turkey insists that it was within Turkish airspace while Russian officials claim it was within Syrian territory.