Russia Turkey jet flag
© Sputnik/Alexander Vilf
Following the win of Russia's basketball team CSKA over Fenerbahce, a Turkish team, in a May 15 Euroleague title game, Turkish politician Samil Tayyar tweeted that he feels like downing another Russian jet.

CSKA Moscow beat Fenerbahce 101-96 in overtime on Sunday, winning its seventh crown in the biggest game in European basketball. Enraged by the outcome of this friendly competition, Samil Tayyar, a member of Turkey's parliament, proposed a military response.

"I want to shoot down one more Russian jet!" the politician wrote.

On November 24, 2015, a Turkish F-16 fighter shot down a Russian Su-24 combat jet over Syria, which fell 2.5 miles south of the Turkish border. The jet was carrying out anti-terrorist operations in Syria. The crew of the plane ejected and one of the pilots, Oleg Peshkov, was killed by ground fire, while the second pilot survived. He was later rescued.


Comment: For more information, listen to our Behind the Headlines show on the subject:

Behind the Headlines: Erdogan, the Su-24 shoot-down, CIA-NATO in Turkey, and containing Russia


Although Turkey insists that the plane violated its airspace, both Russian and Syrian military officials confirmed that the plane never crossed the border. In response to the incident, Russia introduced a set of measures against Turkey, which ban or restrict the activities of Turkish organizations in Russia, prohibit Russian citizens from hiring Turkish citizens, ban the charter flights to Turkey which had been favored for years by millions of Russian package tourists, and ban certain food imports.