Turkey taking no steps to investigate killing of downed Su-24 pilot — ambassador

Russian Politics & Diplomacy February 09, 2016, 14:58

Russia’s Su-24 bomber with two pilots onboard was shot down by the Turkish Air Force on November 24, 2015

MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Ankara has made no moves to detain the leader of the Turkish nationalist organization, the Grey Wolves, who has reportedly claimed responsibility for killing the pilot of the downed Russian Su-24 bomber, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov has said.

"Turkey’s authorities have taken no steps to detain him (Alparslan Celik). He appears in TV programs and a number of newspapers have published his interview so Mr. Celik walks freely in Turkey," Karlov told the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

Russia’s Su-24 bomber with two pilots onboard was shot down by the Turkish Air Force on November 24, 2015.

The crew of the Su-24 bomber managed to eject but one of the pilots, Oleg Peshkov, was killed by gunfire from the ground. The second pilot, Konstantin Murakhtin, was rescued and taken to the Russian air base.

In an interview with Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper in late December, Celik openly admitted that he directly took part in the murder of the Russian pilot. Moscow has repeatedly called on Ankara to find and detain Celik.

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