Turkish PM urges Russian Federation to de-escalate tensions arising from plane downing

Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu addresses the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, ADA, in Baku, Azerbaijan, Friday Dec. 4, 2015.

Turkey neither intends to escalate the situation regarding the downing of the Russian warplane, nor would apologize to Russia for the incident, Davutoglu said at Azerbaijan’s ADA University here, pointing out that Russia’s accusations of Turkey stabbing Moscow in the back are groundless. For the first time, however, the leader suggested that the country could not morally allow aircraft to trespass into Turkish territory before bombing Syria, where Turkish people live as well.

“Turkey can also state that by violating its airspace, Russian Federation stabbed Ankara in the chest”, the PM said, adding that Turkey had confidence in solving this crisis through talks.

Ahmet Davutoglu, in a speech, said that Russian-imposed sanctions would not bring Turkey down and that Turkey has nothing to apologise for. It also slammed an array of economic sanctions on Turkey, including a ban on imports of fruit and vegetables and the sales of tourism packages.

If Ankara wants the Turkish Stream gas pipeline it will need to show some initiative, said Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller.

The Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down over Syria by an air-to-air surface fired from a Turkish F-16 plane when the bomber was at an altitude of 6,000 meters at a distance of 1 km from the Turkish border. He again urged Russian Federation to be open to dialogue so the two countries which had enjoyed warm ties until last week’s incident can resolve the issue diplomatically.