Turkish police have detained Alparslan Celik, the man who claims to be responsible for killing a Russian SU-24 bomber pilot in Turkey last November, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Friday.
An unidentified source in Turkish police confirmed that the man was in police custody.
He was arrested in the Turkish city of Izmir, along with 13 other people on Wednesday, Turkish media reported Thursday.
Celik was a field commander for groups of Turkmen militia in southern Turkey and one of the leaders of the Turkish Gray Wolves radical nationalist group that first appeared in Turkey in the 1960s.
Last November Celik said in a video interview that his group had killed one of the pilots of a Russian Su-24 bomber downed by Turkish aircraft.
The pilot, Oleg Peshkov was shot to death while parachuting to earth after his jet was hit. The other pilot survived and was later rescued by Russian and Syrian special force units.
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