MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. Participants in an emergency meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) consider Turkey’s Air Force's attack on the Russian Su-24 warplane in Syria on Tuesday to be a violation of the international law, the organization’s press service said on Wednesday.
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"The incident is considered to be a blatant violation of the international law and the memorandum on prevention of incidents and providing security of flights in Syria concluded with the US and spreading to all the member states of the coalition, including Turkey," the statement said.
On November 24, a Su-24 frontline bomber of the Russian aviation group in Syria crashed in the Syrian territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the plane was downed by an air-to-air missile launched by a Turkish F-16 fighter.
According to the Russian president, at the moment of the attack the Russian Su-24 plane was flying at an altitude of 6,000 meters at a distance of one kilometer from the Turkish border and posed no threat to Turkey. Putin called the incident a "stab in the back" of Russia delivered by "terrorism accomplices."
Both pilots of the downed warplane ejected safely after they were hit by an air-to-air missile, but the commander was killed by militants’ gunfire from the ground as he was parachuting. Two Mi-8 helicopters were engaged in the pilots’ search and rescue operation. One of the helicopters came under fire and made an emergency landing. One Russian contract serviceman, a marine, was killed. The remaining servicemen on board the helicopter were safely evacuated. The downed Mi-8 helicopter was lately destroyed by mortar fire from the territory controlled by militants.