It was the most scandalous story of November 24: moments after Turkish forces had taken down a Russian fighter jet for allegedly violating Turkish airspace, Turkmen rebels in the region executed one of the parachuting pilots while he was descending to earth. As CNN Turk's Foreign Editor tweeted at the time, Turkmen rebels said: "We hit at the two pilots after they parachuted." This was a war crime.

Now, over four months later, Alparslan Celik, the man suspected of shooting a Russian pilot as he parachuted from a downed jet over Syria, has finally been arrested by Turkish police in the city of Izmir and is being questioned, Hurriyet newspaper reports.

According to Bloomberg, Celik was detained while at a restaurant in the city on Turkey’s Aegean coast; 14 others also detained.

Celik was fighting with anti-Assad regime Turkmen militants in Syria.

Footage of the incident showed a man, believed to be Celik, shooting and killing one of the Russian pilots after he ejected from the jet as he was parachuting to the ground.

Why now? Is Erdogan trying a gentle pivot to Russia now that his western allies are sending increasingly more troubing signals about their support of his presidency.

It remains to be seen if he will be extradited to Russia.