Russia, Turkey negotiating return of cargo seized from Syrian plane
Moscow and Ankara are negotiating the return of 12 boxes with radar spare parts seized from board of the Syrian Airbus A320 flying from Moscow to Damascus, according to a source cited by Russian daily Kommersant.
“We are negotiating now, but the cargo might not be returned. The Turkish authorities refused to give any note of the seized cargo to the Syrian pilot,” the source said.
At the same time a source close to the Russian Service for Military and Technical Cooperation has confirmed that they would insist on return of the seized cargo to its manufacturer.
According to Voice of Russia, Russian arms exporters have branded the Turkish authorities’ claims that they had found ammunition aboard the Syrian airliner that was en route from Moscow to Damascus and forced to land at Ankara airport Wednesday, night as a provocation.
This came in a statement in an interview with the Interfax news agency by a high-ranking official of a Russian arms-exporting agency.
He was commenting on the recent statement by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, who claimed that the Syrian airliner, which was made to land at Ankara airport, was carrying ammunition from Moscow to Damascus.
The Russian official did not rule out that the airliner may have carried some radio electronic equipment that posed no threat and was transported on a perfectly legal basis.
The Russian Rosoboronexport agency and the Federal Service for Military-Technological Cooperation confirmed earlier that they had sent no equipment to Syria by that particular plane.