Turkish Fishermen Claim They Didn’t Approach Russian Ship

The Turkish fishermen involved in the incident that took place in Aegean sea on Sunday laid out their perspective, claiming that they didn’t come closer than 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) to the Russian frigate and that they didn’t hear any warning shots.

According to Muzaffer Geçici, the owner of the Turkish fishing seiner involved in the incident with a "Smetlivy" missile destroyer in the Aegean Sea, the crewmen didn’t hear any warnings from the Russian ship and in fact there wasn’t a dangerously close approach from their side.

"Fishermen didn’t approach the Russian ship within much more than a mile [1.8 kilometers], and the vessel itself was motionless. Nobody was firing at us, and if there was, the fishermen didn’t hear it,” СNN Turk reported Geçici had said.

He also added that footage taken by surveillance cameras and other data from the seiner were handed down to the Turkish Coast Guard Command.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that, on Sunday, the crew of the Russian "Smetlivy" ship spotted a Turkish vessel at the distance of approximately a kilometer moving toward the anchored missile destroyer. The Turkish seiner’s crew did not get on the radio to contact the destoryer and then ignored signal lamps or flairs from the Russian designed to avoid collision.

As the seiner approached the Russian combat ship at a distance of 600 meters, the "Smetlivy"  fired warning shots using guns that did not have adequate range to hit the fishing seiner in order to prevent collision.

According to Russia’s defense ministry, shortly after, the Turkish fishermen’s seiner changed its course without contacting the Russian destroyer and continued to pass the ‘Smetliviy’ at a distance of 540 meters.