Turkey used its right according to international law to defend its territory in downing the Russian military aircraft
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to the article published by The Express Tribune on December 7 by Russia’s ambassador to Pakistan, Alexey Dedov, titled “Russia’s fight against terror”. Turkey used its right according to international law to defend its territory in downing the Russian military aircraft on November 24, as Pakistan had done on occasions during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Russian military aircraft violated Turkish airspace several times prior to the incident and Russia had apologised for it. Russia had been told that such violations would not be tolerated further. The aircraft in question, whose identity was not known, was warned on the international emergency frequency repeatedly as it approached Turkey. A second aircraft turned south but this one only increased altitude; having clearly heard the warning. The big difference between this incident and the one of the Turkish aircraft downed over the Mediterranean Sea in 2012, referred to in the article, is that the latter was not warned at all and was flying over international waters when shot down. This is why Turkey found this violation so unacceptable. There is no time limit for airspace violations according to international law; violation starts on the first second an aircraft enters the airspace of another country without permission. Therefore, the duration is irrelevant. The Russian claim that the aircraft had clear identity markings was untrue as footage by Russian channel RT shows that the markings on the aircraft had been painted over.
The attempt to link Turkey with the Islamic State’s oil trade is preposterous. The Turkish president has asked his Russian counterpart to provide proof for this claim. The satellite images publicised by Russia were proven false as the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government declared the oil tankers shown in the images as their own, carrying Iraqi oil to Turkey.
Russia claims that its forces are in Syria to fight terrorism. The truth is that Russia is in Syria to try to save the Bashar al-Assad regime, which is accused of committing atrocities against its own citizens. We should remember that over 300,000 Syrian civilians have been killed by the Assad regime so far.
S Babur Girgin
Turkey’s ambassador to Pakistan
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2015.
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