An informed Russian source has said that the Turkish plane which was downed in Syrian territorial waters recently had provoked the Syrian air defenses through violating Syrian airspace twice. Russian Interfax news agency quoted the source as saying in a special statement today that the Turkish F 4 plane had undoubtedly acted provocatively, otherwise how can we explain the fact that the fighter had penetrated Syrian airspace twice, even for a short time. The source pointed out that the pilots of the Turkish fighter had provoked, in every sense of the word, the Syrian air defenses fire, adding that the conduct of the crew had one reason only namely to test and actually verify the combat readiness of the Syrian air defenses and carry out a reconnaissance operation to explore the Syrian air defense forces and system.