Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border on Nov. 24, Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls it a "stab in the back" and says the incident will have "serious consequences" for the relationship between the two countries.
Turkey claims that the aircraft violated its airspace, where the pilots reportedly ignored 10 warnings. The country soon released radar images of the warplane trespassing on its airspace. However, Russia denies Turkey's allegations, posting counter-images that imply that its SU-24 fighter jet did not intrude.
An emergency North Atlantic Council meeting was held as requested by Ankara, where North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) secretary general Jens Stoltenberg urged for "calm and de-escalation" and noted that allies "stand in solidarity with Turkey" in a statement.
"The aim of this extraordinary NAC meeting is for Turkey to inform allies about the downing of a Russian airplane," Carmen Romero, deputy spokesperson of NATO, tells the Associated Press.
According to Russia's state-run news organization RIA Novosti, of the two pilots, one was reportedly killed in the air by fire from the ground, whereas the other flier's status was not disclosed.
Moreover, two Mi-8 helicopters carried out a rescue operation for the two pilots on Tuesday, but one of the helicopters suffered damage from small arms and needed to do an emergency landing in a neutral area. During the mission, a Russian marine was killed.
"The personnel of the search-and-rescue team and the helicopter crew were evacuated and are now at the Hmeymim airbase. The helicopter was destroyed by mortar fire conducted from the territory controlled by illegal armed groups," Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy says in a news release.
U.S. President Barack Obama commented that Turkey had the right to defend its country. With that said, he encouraged both countries to discuss the event to find out what really happened and to avoid any escalation of the matter.
"I do think that this points to an ongoing problem with the Russian operations in the sense that they are operating very close to the Turkish border and they are going after moderate opposition that are supported not only by Turkey but by a number of countries," NPR reports as Obama's statement.
French President Francois Hollande says that "Assad must go" for being responsible for most of the deaths in Syria.
The video uploaded by AP on YouTube shows how the warplane was shot down and how the two pilots who were able to eject were fired at.
