Turkish MP Tweets Desire to Shoot Down Russian Jet After Basketball Defeat

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.

İnsanın bir Rus uçağı daha düşüresi geliyor!

— Şamil Tayyar (@samiltayyar27) May 15, 2016

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.

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.