The body of the pilot killed when Turkey shot down a Russian jet last week was taken to Turkey late on Saturday to be handed over to Russia on Moscow's request, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Sunday.
“The pilot, who lost his life during [Tuesday's] airspace violation, was delivered to us last night at 01:45 [11:45 GMT],” Davutoğlu said in Ankara, speaking ahead of his departure for a high-level EU meeting in Brussels.
The body is being treated in accordance with the Orthodox tradition, Davutoğlu said.
“The body will be delivered to Russia,” he added.
The Turkish government said on Tuesday that its F-16s shot down the Russian SU-24 after several warnings against its violation of Turkish airspace over the southern province of Hatay.
One of the pilots of the SU-24 died in the incident while the other was rescued by Russian special forces in Syria.
Davutoglu said that attempts to pin the blame on Turkey after the episode were “invalid” in terms of international law.
“The latest statements from Russia are not acceptable in terms of neighboring countries' relations,” he said.
Saying that the Turkish military did what was necessary in a “legitimate” way, Davutoğlu clarified that Tuesday's actions were not directed specifically at Russia.
Speaking on yesterday's killing of the president of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, Tahir Elçi, and two police officers, Davutoğlu said:
“The separatist terrorist organization was responsible for all those incidents,” he said.
'Separatist terrorist organization' is widely understood as being a reference to the PKK.
“Our fight against them will continue in a decisive way,” Davutoğlu added.
The prime minister also said a ballistics report had revealed that the firearm which was found near Elçi's body was the same weapon which was used to kill the first police officer who died in Saturday's incident.
Davutoğlu previously told reporters on Saturday that two possible scenarios were being looked into in relation to Elçi's killing.
The first possibility, he said, was that the attack was an “assassination attempt against Tahir Elci”. The second scenario is that Elçi was caught in the crossfire, Davutoğlu said.
Turkey-EU relations
Speaking on Sunday's meeting between Turkey and the 28-country bloc, Davutoğlu said that the summit would add great momentum to Turkey-EU relations.
“A summit at this level is taking place for the first time in 11 years, since 2004,” Davutoglu added.
He said that the summit was important to define a “common attitude” on both regional and global developments.
Describing today's meeting as a “turning point in terms of developing a common attitude”, Davutoğlu said the summit was important to deal with both the refugee and Syria crises.
As part of a refugee action plan, the EU has offered Turkey €3 billion ($3.1 billion) in funding to meet the needs of Syrian refugees hosted in the country.
Turkey hosts more than two million Syrian refugees.
