Turkey Recognizes Russian Su-24 Was Shot Down Over Syria - Greek DM

ATHENS (Sputnik) — The downed Russian Su-24 bomber was destroyed by Turkey over Syrian territory, otherwise NATO would have scrambled its collective defense charter as a response to an assault on one of its members, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said Wednesday.

"This fact is recognized by Turkey itself, which, if the situation were different, would have asked to activate Article 5 of the NATO Charter as an assaulted member state of the alliance," Kammenos said, as broadcast by the Mega television channel.

A Turkish F-16 fighter shot down the Russian Aerospace Forces Su-24 bomber on November 24, the first time a NATO ally has downed a Russian aircraft in decades. After the incident, Ankara claimed it downed the Russian jet because it had violated Turkish airspace. Both the Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command confirmed that the Russian jet never crossed into Turkish airspace from Syria.

Article 5 of the NATO charter lists an assault on one member as an assault on all members.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the attack as a "stab in the back" carried out by "accomplices of terrorists." Moscow imposed a series of economic measures on Turkey in response to the incident.