Russia searches for alleged killer of Russian pilot

Russian soldiers are in search for the alleged killer of a Russian pilot who was shot after the downing of a Russian jet by Turkey near the Syrian border on November 24.

A Turkish citizen Alparslan Celik is claimed to have shot Russian pilot Oleg Peshkov, and his group were in the rebel-held Rabia town in the western coastal province of Latakia, which was recently recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces, where soldiers were looking to “take revenge,” Russian DNI and Lifenews have reported.

After the downing of the jet, Alparslan Çelik defended the killing of Peshkov in a video, saying that the pilot had dropped bombs on the Turkmens.

“That pilot bombed us five minutes [before Turkey downed the Russian jet] and our brothers were killed or wounded by these bombs. There is no place for a person who has bombed civilian Turkmens every day in my conscious,” said Chelik.

“Reprisal is the most natural right. There is life in reprisal,” he added.

Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov had claimed that the person who shot Peshkov was Chelik, a Turkish citizen on December 14.

“We demand that the Turkish authorities take immediate steps to apprehend Alparslan Çelik and his accomplices and bring them to justice for the murder of the Russian pilot,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.