Following the defeat of Istanbul’s Fenerbahce by Moscow’s CSKA in the Euroleague finals on Sunday, Samil Tayyar, an MP from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) tweeted, “I want another Russian plane downed,” RT reported on Monday.
Tayyar’s comment was retweeted over 8,000 times and received over 10,000 “likes”, although most of the comments he received were of an unenthusiastic nature.
Following the wave of negative reactions to his remarks, Tayyar took to Twitter again on Monday and posted that he had not been serious.
"This is a joke, guys, relax," he said.
Turkish fighter jets shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber on the Syrian border on November 24, 2015, sparking a nosedive in their diplomatic ties.
The crew of the plane ejected but one of the pilots was killed by Turkmen militants on the ground as he was parachuting down. The other pilot was rescued by the Syrian army.
Alparslan Celik, a deputy commander of a Turkmen militant group (C), holds handles believed to be parts of a parachute of the downed Russian warplane near the northern Syrian village of Yamadi, near the Turkish-Syrian border, Syria, November 24, 2015. (Reuters)
Ankara has never offered an apology for the incident as it claims the jet had violated Turkish airspace, and recently dropped all charges against Alparslan Celik, the main suspect in the killing.
Celik is the son of a former district mayor elected from a Turkish nationalist party. In an interview with Hurriyet newspaper, Celik had said the killing was in retaliation for Russia’s aerial campaign against militants in Syria.
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