Spotlight: Int'l community urges restraint over Russian warplane downing, investigations underway

The international community has called for restraint and de-escalation of tensions after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on Tuesday in an area near the border with war-torn Syria.

Earlier on Tuesday, Turkish fighters shot down a Russian Su-24 warplane after issuing numerous warnings about the plane's alleged violation of its airspace. But Russia said the plane was shot down over Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkish F-16 jets "intercepted an unidentified warplane according to globally acknowledged rules of engagement."

Despite 10 warnings, the aircraft "continued to violate" Turkish airspace, forcing the Turkish F-16 jets to down one of the two warplanes, said Erdogan, without identifying the aircraft as Russian.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country had the right to take "all kinds of measures" against border violations, and called on the international community to work toward "extinguishing the fire that is burning in Syria."

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday insisted that the Russian Su-24 warplane had not violated Turkey's airspace.

"When attacked in the air, the plane was flying at an altitude of 6,000 meters, 1 km away from the Turkish territory," Putin said during a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Russia's Sochi.

He said that the plane was shot down by an air-to-air missile launched by a Turkish F-16 jet in the Syrian airspace and the Su-24 crashed in Syria 4 km away from the Turkish border.

"They were fulfilling their task of delivering preventive airstrikes on positions of the Islamic State (IS)...The Russian pilots and the warplane have in no way threatened Turkey. This is obvious," Putin said.

"This event goes beyond the boundaries of fighting terrorism. It is a stab in the back from accomplices of terrorists," Putin said, according to live broadcast by Russian 24 TV channel.

Putin said that the incident would have serious consequences for Moscow-Ankara relations as "Russia would not tolerate crimes like what happened today."

The Russian Defense Ministry, in its latest released statement, said that the Russian Su-24 plane was shot down by a Turkish F-16 jet on its way back to Syria's Hmeimim airbase, the location of a Russian anti-terrorism-strikes air force group.

RESTRAINT URGED

Following the shooting down of the Russian bomber, Turkey on Tuesday turned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and requested an emergency meeting to discuss the incident.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for calm and de-escalation of tensions after the extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Council, NATO's governing body.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday said that he was "seriously concerned" about the downing of the Russian warplane by Turkey, voicing his hope that "a credible and thorough review of the incident will clarify the events and help prevent any recurrence."

"The secretary-general is seriously concerned over the incident resulting in the downing of a Russian military plane by the Turkish air force earlier today," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. "He urges all relevant parties to take urgent measures with a view to de-escalate tensions."

U.S. President Barack Obama and his French counterpart, Francois Hollande, in a joint press conference after their meeting at the White House Tuesday, also urged Russia and Turkey to avoid escalation of tensions.

"My top priority is going to be to ensure that this does not escalate," Obama said.

"It's very important right now for us to make sure that both the Russians and the Turks are talking to each other to find out exactly what happened and take measures to discourage any kind of escalation," Obama said.

Following comments made by Obama, Hollande told reporters that "We must prevent an escalation. That would be extremely damaging."

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday was also "aware of the reports" of the incident, according to a Downing Street spokesperson.

"There is now, obviously, an investigation to try and establish exactly what happened this morning," the spokesperson said in a press briefing.

"Clearly any time any airplane is shot down in any part of the world that would be a concern. But let's pause until we understand the full facts of exactly what happened," the spokesperson said when asked about Cameron's response to the incident.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has urged Putin to "exercise restraint" after he promised a swift retribution for the downing of the Russian warplane.

Bishop told reporters Wednesday that a full-scale investigation would uncover whether the Su-24 warplane was in Turkish airspace before Turkish F-16s shot the plane down with an air-to-air missile.

"We urge both sides to exercise restraint and that there not be any military retaliation," Bishop said.

"I have spoken with the (foreign affairs) department and I've received briefings overnight from our posts overseas but at this point the facts are still unclear and we urge restraint while an investigation is carried out."

INVESTIGATIONS UNDERWAY, POSSIBLE INFLUENCE

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday said preliminary data showed one of the two pilots ejected from the warplane shot down by Turkey was killed by ground fire as he parachuted to ground in Syria and a marine was killed during the ensuing rescue attempt.

"Presumably, the Su-24 plane was hit by a short-range missile with an infrared seeker," Sergei Rutskoy, chief of the Russian General Staff Main Operations Directorate, said in an online statement of the Defense Ministry released Tuesday.

"Objective monitoring devices registered no attempts by the Turkish plane to establish radio or visual contact with our crew," he added.

His account contradicted Turkey's claims of issuing 10 warnings in five minutes about its violation of the Turkish airspace before two F-16 jets "interfered."

The United States believes that the Russian bomber shot down by Turkey on Tuesday was hit inside Syrian airspace after a brief incursion into Turkish airspace, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said that assessment was based on detection of the heat signature of the plane.

In a phone conversation with Turkey's Erdogan, Obama expressed "U.S. and NATO support for Turkey's right to defend its sovereignty," the White House said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon clarified its position on the incident earlier on Tuesday, saying the U.S.-led campaign against the IS was neither affected by nor involved in Turkey's downing of the Russian plane.

"This is an incident between the Russian and the Turkish governments," said Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S-led military campaign against the IS.

Turkish-Russian ties have been strained ever since Moscow started bombing IS targets inside Syria in late September, which Ankara described as operations mainly in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Ankara has been pushing for al-Assad's ouster ever since Syria was plunged into chaos in March 2011.

Moscow's involvement in the Syrian conflict had resulted in what Turkey called repeated breaches of its airspace by Russian planes and shelling of Turkmen villages lately in northern Syria, acts that had prompted Ankara to summon the Russian envoy to lodge a protest.

The downing of the Russian jet came at a critical time when Moscow is seen more as a potential partner in the ongoing battle against the IS in the West, in particular the United States and France, in the aftermath of a spate of terror attacks by the extremist group on Russian, Lebanese and French targets.

If Moscow opts to retaliate militarily, Washington and its European allies are bound to come to the rescue of Turkey, a NATO member state, a worst-case scenario Washington and its partners are unwilling to see.

Analysts who spoke to Xinhua described the latest incident as a "very dangerous element" having the potential to spread the conflict to a broader area. They called on Turkey and Russia to speed up diplomatic efforts to find a way out.

"The parties should avoid further confrontations and should ease the tension," said Oytun Orhan, an expert on Syria with the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies, a think tank in Ankara.

"Ankara and Moscow should focus on diplomatic efforts to ameliorate their shattered relations," he said.

Mesut Hakki Casin from Turkey's Ozyegin University said the episode should be discussed at the UN Security Council. Endi