MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — Earlier in the day, a Su-24M bomber was downed by an air-to-air missile shot from a Turkish F-16 fighter jet in Syria near the Turkish border. Ankara requested NATO’s principal decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, to hold an extraordinary meeting over the incident.
"This incident will also impact Turkish-Syrian relations, economic ties in particularly, in terms of energy relations, so all the governments need to sit together and try to solve the problem," Gunal, a member of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said.
Syrian-Turkish relations have long been strained due to a number of factors, including Damascus' support of the Kurdistan Worker's Party, a militant group banned in Turkey. Ankara was also put under pressure to receive over a million of refugees fleeing violence and poverty in Syria during the ongoing civil war.
Ankara claims Turkish F-16s shot down the plane because it violated the country's airspace. Contrary to Ankara’s accusations, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the aircraft was 0.6 miles from Turkey when it was hit.