Turkey releases recording of warnings to Russian plane amid standoff

Turkey has released audio recordings of what it says are the Turkish military’s repeated warnings to the pilot of the Russian plane before it was shot down at the border with Syria.

The audio footage comes amid an escalating war of words between Moscow and Ankara. 

The recordings, made available to The Associated Press on Thursday, indicate the plane was warned several times Tuesday that it was approaching Turkey’s airspace and asked to change course. 

Turkey shot down the Russian Su-24 bomber on Tuesday, insisting it had violated its airspace despite repeated warnings. It was the first time in half a century that a NATO member shot down a Russian plane.

A surviving Russian pilot has denied that his jet veered into Turkey's airspace and rejected Turkey's claim that it had issued repeated warnings to the Russian crew.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday Turkey still hadn’t apologized for downing the plane or given assurances that "the culprits of this crime" will be punished.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan however was in no apologetic mood.

He lashed out at Russia, accusing it of using its fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Syria as a pretext to target opposition groups including the Turkmen, in a bid to strengthen Syrian President Bashar Assad.

He challenged Russia to prove its accusation that Turkey is buying oil and gas from the ISIL, calling the claims "shameful" and making counter claim that ISIL was selling its oil to Assad.

Erdogan said Turkey had not specifically targeted Russia when it shot down the plane, saying it was "an automatic response" in line with its rules of engagement.

"Faced with the same violation today, Turkey would give the same response," Erdogan said.

“It’s the country that carried out the violation which should question itself and take measures to prevent it from happening again, not the country that was subjected to a violation,” he added.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered his government on Thursday to draw up measures that would include freezing some joint investment projects and restricting food imports from Turkey.

"We are strategic partners  'Joint projects may be halted, ties could be cut'? Are such approaches fitting for politicians?" Erdogan said in a speech to local officials in Ankara.

Turkish businessmen in Russia have told Al Jazeera that Russian police have been raiding Turkish companies there. The Russian and Tukrish foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests to confirm the raids.  

The series of 10 audio clips from the incident that triggered the standoff were released by the prime minister’s office and sourced to the Turkish Armed Forces.

In the recordings, a voice is heard saying in broken English: “This is Turkish Air Force speaking on guard. You are approaching Turkish airspace. Change your heading south immediately.” Most of the audio is garbled and barely comprehensible but the tone of the voice gets more agitated as the warnings appear to go unnoticed.

The audio that was released only involved Turkish warnings, no replies by a Russian pilot. It was not clear if Russian replies were received but not released by the Turkish government, or if the Russian pilots never replied to the warnings or if they never heard the warnings.

One of the Russian pilots was killed by armed group members in Syria after ejecting from the plane, while his crewmate was rescued by Syrian army commandos. A Russian marine was also killed by the armed group members during the rescue mission.

Speaking in televised comments from the Russian base in Syria, the surviving navigator of the downed plane, Capt. Konstantin Murakhtin, insisted the plane did not enter Turkish airspace "even for a single second."

Russia announced Wednesday it will deploy long-range air defense missiles to its base in Syria and destroy any target that may threaten its warplanes. The state-run RIA Novosti news agency on Thursday quoted its own reporter in Syria as saying S-400 missiles have been delivered.

Speaking at the Kremlin on Thursday, Putin complained that he has not received an apology from Turkey nor an offer "to make up for the damages."

He said he regretted the fact that relations between Turkey and Russia have been driven into a stalemate.

Al Jazeera and wire services