Russia took revenge on Turkey for downing the plane
The Turkish military command considers the destruction of its Bell AH-1 Cobra combat helicopter in 2016 as retribution from Russia for the downing of a Russian Su-24.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, citing the testimony of Turkish staff colonel Mehmet Shahin, which was published by the Stockholm organization Nordic Research Monitoring Network.
According to the officer, it was Russia that “organized” the attack on the helicopter by providing the Igla MANPADS to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
“The Russians first demonstrated a missile on the Bosporus, and then they shot down our AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter in Hakkari province on the border with Iraq. We conducted multiple studies, an analysis was done, and they confirmed to me that this is the same SA-18 [Igla, NATO code name] as on the ship,” Shahin said.
Apparently this refers to the incident with the landing ship of the Russian Navy "Caesar Kunikov", which passed through the Bosphorus in December 2015 with a Russian serviceman standing on board with a MANPADS on his shoulder.
The Turkish officer claims that Russia continued to show its support for the Kurds.
“Then, as you know, the Russian Federation was firmly established in Syria. Turkey could not even get its planes to fly closer than 10-15 km to Syrian airspace,” Sahin admitted.
This testimony was given back in 2017, but was only declassified now.
Let us recall that relations between Russia and Turkey worsened after the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian plane on the Syrian border in 2015. Relations were restored only after Russia introduced anti-Turkish sanctions and an apology from President Erdogan.
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