Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he wanted to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the climate summit in Paris after the downing of a Russian warplane.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he wanted to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the climate summit in Paris after the downing of a Russian warplane.
“I would like to meet him face to face on Monday,” Mr Erdogan said after days of tit-for-tat accusations over the incident that has severely damaged ties.
Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the Kremlin had received a proposal from Mr Erdogan to hold a meeting with Mr Putin in Paris next week but did not say whether Moscow had accepted or refused the offer.
Mr Putin had previously refused to take Mr Erdogan’s call following the plane downing. Mr Peskov confirmed that Mr Putin was “made aware” of the Turkish leader’s attempt to communicate, which was made several hours after the plane was shot down. Turkey says the Russian plane strayed into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings but Russia insisted it did not cross the border and accused Ankara of a “planned provocation.”
“It was an automatic response to the air space violation,” Mr Erdogan said. “Turkey did not deliberately down the Russian warplane.”
And he described Mr Putin’s criticism of Ankara over the incident as “unacceptable”. “Russia is obliged to prove its allegations, otherwise it will be considered a liar because of those grave and unfair accusations targeting Turkey.”
Mr Erdogan said it was not the first time Russian jets had breached Turkish air space and that he had warned Mr Putin about “ugly incidents” after two incursions in October.
The Turkish President also attacked Russia’s policy in Syria after it launched airstrikes in September, accusing the Kremlin of backing the regime of “murderer” President Bashar al-Assad.
He claimed that the Russian air raids did not target the Islamic State (ISIS) group.“We are not blind to (Russian) cunning... Using the plane incident as a pretext” to prop up the Assad regime.
He said backing the regime in Damascus after more than four years of war that has killed 250,000 people was like “playing with fire”.
The Turkish strongman also struck back at Russian “slander” that Turkey was buying oil from the ISIS. “You must know that we are not as dishonourable as to buy oil from a terrorist organisation,” he said. “Turkey is buying oil from Russia.”
Mr Erdogan labelled attempts to link his country with ISIS jihadists as “disrespectful” to Turkey. Mr Erdogan also warned Russia not to “play with fire”, but added he did not want to harm relations with Moscow, comments that look more likely to inflame than quell the dispute over the downed Russian bomber.“We very sincerely recommend to Russia not to play with fire,” Mr Erdogan told supporters during a speech in Bayburt, in northeast Turkey.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said that Ankara has crossed the line by shooting down the Russian warplane and warned the incident could severely undermine Turkey’s interests.
“We believe that the Turkish leadership has crossed the line of what is acceptable,” Mr Lavrov said at the start of talks with Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Moscow.
Ankara “risks putting Turkey in a most severe situation, with respect to both its long-term national interests and the situation in the region,” he said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday sought to ease tensions with Moscow, calling for unity against the ISIS and arguing the shooting of the plane was not an act against Russia.
The Kremlin, however, did not seem in a conciliatory mood.Moscow on Friday ruled out any military response against Turkey, but it has pledged broad retaliatory measures targeting entire sectors of the Turkish economy, including tourism, agriculture and investments.
“A decision has been made to halt the visa-free regime with Turkey,” Mr Lavrov told reporters after talks with Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Moscow. “This decision will enter into force from January 1, 2016.” Mr Putin earlier warned citizens not to travel to Turkey, whose affordable beaches are hugely popular with Russian holidaymakers.
