Czechs, Slovaks Outraged by Anti-Russian Stance in Su-24 Downing Coverage

Readers of Czech and Slovakia’s media publications were outraged at the stance their national media outlets took with the publication of an article with the headline “Since the Russian plane was shot down, Russia is taken by anti-Turkish hysteria.”

Initially, the publication appeared in the pages of news agency ČTK on the measures taken by the Russian government following the incident. Later on, the same material was reprinted by many Czech and Slovak media.

“If Poles shot down our Gripen, perhaps, we would thank them? These considerations are beyond comprehension. Turkey has become a major patron of ISIL (Daesh) and now it wonders why Russia does not like that?” Karel Vlach expressed his indignation on ceskenivine.cz website.

Another user of Udatný Eurohujer publication noted that it is not the anti-Turkish hysteria that has swept the Russians; it is actually “the EU and US who have had anti-Russia hysteria swept over them since several years ago.”

“They underestimated Russia. It was a military action and Russians have taken that seriously. NATO is giving frightened stares, but it does not support Turkey. They just mumbled that they support Turkey and nothing more,” Jaroslav Řezník, reader of ihned.cz wrote.

Another user TomášL wondered, “How would you have behaved if a Czech aircraft was shot down, for example, by Russia?”

“Should Russia have thanked Turkey for downing their jet over Syrian territory? Or for killing the pilot? Or for the Turkmen, geared with American weapons, who shot down the rescue helicopter? Of course we would have done that and then even apologized. This is what our government is like,” user Bublina wrote sarcastically on parlamentnilisty.cz website.

Reader Marco01 believes that every citizen in Russia is backed by the entire nation. Only the Turks might have thought that Russia would have simply ignored this incident.

Users on another publication denik.cz expressed a similar thought saying, “This is not hysteria. It's just a manifestation of a sense of belonging to one nation.”

“Bad, bad Russia does not love good Turks. But Americans are hurting for the whole world,” ironically noted a user with the nickname Dr. Grunstein.