Two
Turkish pilots thought to have perished when their jet was shot down by
Damascus on June 22 were actually rescued, interrogated and murdered by Syrian
intelligence services, secret documents released tonight by Saudi Arabia’s Al
Arabiya news channel purport to show.
“Two
Turkish pilots were captured by the Syrian Air Force Intelligence after their
jet was shot down in coordination with the Russian naval base in [the Syrian
city of] Tartus,” according to a document released by Al-Arabiya that was allegedly
sent directly from President Bashar al-Assad’s office to Brig. Hassan Abdel
Rahman, the chief of Syria’s Special Operations Unit.
The
document reportedly ordered the concerned parties to treat the two pilots, Air
Force Cpt. Gökhan Ertan and Air Force Lt. Hasan Hüseyin Aksoy, according to the
protocol of war prisoners, while also requesting that both men be investigated
about Turkey’s role in supporting the Free Syrian Army, the main group of
opposition militants fighting to overthrow Syria’s government.
The
documents suggest the possibility of transferring Ertan and Aksoy into the
custody of Syrian ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, but a subsequent file expressed
the need to “eliminate” the two pilots. “Based on information and guidance from
the Russian leadership, comes a need to eliminate the two Turkish pilots
detained by the Special Operations Unit in a natural way, and their bodies need
to be returned to the crash site in international waters,” the document said.
The
documents, which have not been independently verified, were obtained with the
assistance of members of the Syrian opposition, who refused to explain how they
accessed the files.
Turkey
has long said Syria shot the pilots’ plane down in international waters, while
Syria has claimed it shot the plane down in its territorial waters with an
anti-aircraft gun.
There
was no immediate comment from the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
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