Su-24 Downing Proves Turkey Aids Extremists – Syrian Foreign Minister

 Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said that Turkey’s downing of a Russian Su-24 military aircraft demonstrates that Turkish authorities support extremist groups.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said that Turkey’s downing of a Russian Su-24 military aircraft demonstrates that Turkish authorities support extremist groups.

MOSCOW – Turkey’s downing of a Russian Su-24 military aircraft proves that Turkish authorities support extremist groups, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, the efforts that are carried out to destroy IS and Jabhat al-Nusra positions insulted the Turkish leadership. Therefore it aggressively violated the sovereignty of Syria by attacking a Russian aircraft on the territory of Syria,” Muallem said at a meeting with Russian parliament speaker Sergei Naryshkin, according to the Russian Sputnik News.

According to the Syrian minister, Turkish authorities have “for several years maintained ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and some other radical groups.”

Syria regrets that terrorists shot Russian pilot ejecting from Su-24 Flanker bomber downed by the Turkish Air Force and considers the act a military crime, Walid Muallem said Wednesday.

“We express our regret in regard to the actions of those terrorists who are supported by [Turkish President Tayyip] Ergodan and the leadership [of that country], and regrets they began shooting the pilot as he was descending by parachute. Without any exaggeration, this is considered a military crime,” Muallem said during a meeting with the speaker of Russia’s lower parliament, Sergei Naryshkin, in Moscow.

Syria’s moderate opposition was likely involved in Tuesday’s killing of a Russian pilot, Walid Muallem said Wednesday.

“How can the armed opposition be considered moderate when they shoot at a pilot while he is descending with a parachute? This is a war crime,” Muallem told reporters.