Turkey shot down a Russian warplane for violating its airspace Tuesday, but the Turkish air force does the exact same thing several times a day in Greece. Turkey was quick to defend its action by stating it issued 10 warnings over the course of five minutes before firing on the plane.
“The data we have is very clear. There were two planes approaching our border, we warned them as they were getting too close,” a senior Turkish official told Reuters. “Our findings show clearly that Turkish air space was violated multiple times. And they violated it knowingly.”
But the Turkish air force doesn’t seem to be too careful about entering Greek airspace, according to numbers from the University of Thessaly. A tally shows the Turks committed a total of 2,244 violations in 2014, up from 636 in 2013.
The Russians did not take the matter lightly and President Vladimir Putin called the action from Turkey “a stab in the back.” He further warned of serious consequences for the action that he believes was made by “the accomplices of terrorists.”
President Barack Obama said Russia and Turkey needs to investigate what happened before taking any further actions against one another.
“I think it is very important for us to right now make sure that both the Russians and the Turks are talking to each other and find out exactly what happened, and take measures to discourage any kind of escalation,” Obama said at a joint press conference with French President Francois Hollande at The White House.
