The fallen Russian Su-24 pilot’s widow, downed by the Turkish Air Force a year ago, said she was ready to meet with Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, who had said on Wednesday he was ready to personally apologise to her.
“Despite the very grievous times for our family, we will visit Moscow to attend this meeting,” Elena Peshkova said on Thursday.
A Turkish F-16 fighter shot down the Russian Su-24 combat jet near the Syria-Turkey border on November 24, 2015. Both pilots ejected. One was saved, but Oleg Peskov was killed by militant fire from the ground.
During the rescue operation, a Russian marine was also killed.
The aircraft was carrying out anti-terrorist operations across Syria.
The incident caused relations between Ankara and Moscow to sharply deteriorate, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it “a stab in the back.”
Russia has repeatedly said that Turkey should apologise for downing the plane and cover any material losses to the country and the pilot’s family, as well as punish those responsible for the incident.
On June 27, the Kremlin’s press office published a statement announcing that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had sent a letter to Putin to apologise for the incident.
Relations between the two countries have since improved after Erdogan visited St. Petersburg in August and held talks with his counterpart to begin mending ties.
Source: Sputnik
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