Moscow urges Ankara to punish alleged killer of Russian pilot

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday urged Ankara to give due punishment to a Turkish national who allegedly killed a Russian military pilot in the downing of a Russian warplane in November last year.

Alparslan Celik, who fought inside Syria, allegedly killed Oleg Peshkov, one of the pilots of the Russian Su-24 bomber, as he ejected from the plane after it was hit by Turkey.

In the downing of the Su-24 jet, the two crew members managed to parachute themselves, but Peshkov was shot down by ground fire as he parachuted to ground in Syria. The other pilot, Captain Konstantin Murakhtin, was rescued by Russian and Syrian forces and taken to the Hmeimim airbase in Syria, where a Russian airforce group for anti-terror campaign is located.

Celik was arrested in the western Turkish city of Izmir in April for illegal possession of weapons. Earlier in the day, his lawyer told the RIA Novosti news agency that Celik's trial would start in Turkey on June 27.

At her weekly press conference, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Turkish authorities are "purposefully trying to tone down Celik's arrest," saying that the Turkish justice is "in general trying to create an impression that the detention of an ordinary criminal has nothing to do with the tragedy in November."

Zakharova called on the Turkish authorities to take necessary steps to find and call to responsibility all persons involved in the killing of Peshkov, including Celik and his subordinates.

Relations between Russia and Turkey have soured after the latter downed the Russian bomber near the Turkish-Syrian border for alleged airspace violation, which the Russian side denied and saw as a hostile act.

Russian President Vladimir Putin then described the attack as a "stab in the back" and ordered a broad range of economic sanctions against Turkey.

Ankara has not taken retaliatory economic measures, avoiding escalation of the already tense situation, but did not shy away from resorting to harsh diatribe against Russia.

In a surprise posture last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he wanted to improve ties with Russia and lamented that relations between the two countries were sacrificed over what he called "a pilot error."

He said he did not understand what kind of "first step" Russia was expecting of Turkey to take to repair the soured ties. Endi