Sergei Lazovsky
© Sergei Lazovsky/TASS
Turkish poet Hüseyin Haydar has written an apology to Russians for a Russian military aircraft downed by his country's military and the death of a Russian pilot.

In his verse entitled "An apology to the great Russian people", Haydar wrote that "fraternal bonds were severed right in front of our eyes".

The Turkish Air Force's F-16 fighter on November 24, 2015 shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M bomber, involved in Russia's antiterrorism operation in Syria, that Ankara claimed violated the country's airspace on the border with Syria.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the Su-24M was above Syrian territory and "there was no violation of Turkey's airspace."

Pilot Oleg Peshkov was killed by militants from the ground after ejecting, the second pilot was rescued and taken to the Russian base.

The incident resulted in the severing of nearly all trade and economic ties between the two countries. Ankara refused to apologize for the downed jet and death of the pilot. Moscow put the blame for the incident on the Turkish authorities.

The poet, who, as a representative of Turkey, took poetic responsibility for the death of the Russian pilot, listed a whole range of artistic images from Russia whose forgiveness he asks, including poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, writer Maxim Gorky, pilot and cosmonaut Yury Gagarin as well as heroes who defeated Nazism.

The Turkish poet's verse ends with an address to the family of the killed pilot: "And on my knees I am asking Oleg Peshkov's mother for forgiveness."

Hüseyin Haydar is a well-known Turkish poet, the winner of national awards who has published his works in many literary magazines of the country. He was born in 1956. In 1973 he won a competition of poets organized by the National Education Ministry.

He has had his works published in the Society and Art, The Labor of Art, Literary Front, Turkish Language, Legacy, National Art and other magazines since 1979. The poet's verses have been translated into many languages of the world