MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Berlin does not consider Ankara to be an easy partner within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and disapproves of Turkey’s downing of a Russian military aircraft in November 2015, August Hanning, former head of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), said Wednesday.
"We were not happy with Turkey's actions in the situation with the Russian plane. Believe me, Turkey is not an easy partner even for us. We cannot force Turkey to behave [in a] certain way. We have rules in NATO and, [according] to my opinion, Turkey has violated these rules," Hanning stated at the fifth Moscow Conference on International Security.
A Russian Su-24 combat plane was shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet over Syria on November 24, 2015, falling to the ground four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Turkish border. The crew of the plane managed to eject successfully but one of the pilots, Oleg Peshkov, was killed by fire from the ground, while the second pilot survived and was later rescued.
Ankara claimed the warplane violated its airspace, however, both the Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command stated that the Russian jet never crossed into Turkish airspace.
In response to this "stab in the back," as it was described by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow imposed a number of restrictive measures on Turkey.
