Stoltenberg: NATO to bolster Turkish air defense on Syrian border

NATO countries agreed to send warplanes to Turkey to strengthen country's air defense on the border with Syria.

This was announced by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Censor.NET informs citing Gazeta.ru.

NATO allies have reached an agreement on aid package to Turkey, he said.

As noted, the decision was partially made to avoid a recurrence of incidents similar to that with the Russian Su-24.

Earlier, it was reported that Russia was preparing new economic sanctions against Turkey. An advanced package of sanctions against Turkey is being developed by the government.

As previously reported, the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber near the Syrian border on Tuesday after 10 warnings over air space violation. Later it became known that one of the pilots, Sergey Rumiantsev, was killed.

Russian Ambassador to France Alexander Orlov said Nov. 25 that the second pilot of the downed Su-24 was alive and well and had been taken to the Russian base in Syria. This information was later confirmed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident with the downed Russian warplane "stab in the back." He also said that the Russian aircraft was not threatening Turkey as it "was shot down 1 km away from its border."

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey had the right "to take all kinds of measures" against border violations according to international laws. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in turn, noted that the Turkish Air Force acted within threat response rules in the incident with the downed Russian military aircraft Su-24.

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