Erdoğan expressed regret for downing of Russian jet in letter to Putin

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erodgan on Monday apologised over the downing of a Russian jet a year ago, the Kremlin said.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he believed Ankara would normalise relations with Moscow “rapidly” after expressing regret over the downing of a Russian warplane previous year.

There was no immediate comment from Turkish authorities.

Before the plane was downed, Russian Federation had been the largest destination for Turkish exports, mostly textile and food, and also the biggest source of Turkish imports.

Ankara had argued that the Russian plane strayed into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings, but Moscow insisted it did not cross the border and accused Ankara of a “planned provocation”.

In his letter, Erdoğan expressed condolences to the pilot’s family. We see the family of the Russian pilot as a Turkish family.

The incident strained relations between Moscow and Ankara, with Mr Putin saying he had been “stabbed in the back”. It also hosted more than 5 million Russian tourists in 2014, as Dominique Soguel reported for The Christian Science Monitor. In another concession Monday, a regional Turkish prosecutor announced that he would prosecute Alparslan Çelik, a Turkish national fighting alongside Syrian rebels, for the death of the Russian pilot. Russia’s air campaign, which began in September, helped shore up Syrian president Bashar Assad, whose foes have been backed by Turkey. Turkey regards those groups as terrorists.

The move follows the news earlier in the day that Turkey and Israel had reached a deal to normalise relations that went sour six years ago, when Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, killing 10 Turkish citizens.

Days after taking office last month, Turkey’s new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim – a close Erdogan ally – said Turkey needed to “increase its friends and decrease its enemies”, in what appeared a tacit admission that his predecessor’s policies had left the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member sidelined.

This report contains material from the Associated Press and Reuters.