Erdogan wants to meet Putin ‘face to face’ in Paris

Relations between the former Cold War antagonists have a hit a recent nadir after Turkey shot down the jet near the Syrian border. President Tayyip Erdogan also told CNN that Russian Federation, not Turkey, should be the one to apologize for the incident. The hapless “Erdogan” was made of straw, and identifiable by a print-out photograph attached to its head. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the downing of the Russian jet appeared to be “a planned provocation”.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said that Ankara has crossed the line by shooting down a Russian warplane this week and warned the incident could severely undermine Turkey’s interests.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wants to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Turkish president also blamed the Kremlin for backing the regime of “murderer” President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, likening this to “playing with fire”.

Russia’s defense ministry meanwhile said it had suspended all cooperation with the Turkish military, including a hotline set up to share information on Russian airstrikes in Syria, the TASS news agency reported.

“From our point of view, it is now hard to determine the level of predictability in the actions of the Turkish leadership”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview released Saturday.

In Moscow, Russian air force chief, Colonel General Viktor Bondarev, reaffirmed on Friday that Turkey had not issued any warnings on a previously agreed radio frequency before downing the plane.

On Thursday both Putin and Hollande stressed the need to step up air strikes against vehicles transporting oil across territory controlled by Islamic State and thereby deliver a blow to a key source of financing for the militant group.

Relations between Turkey and Russian Federation have sharply deteriorated since Tuesday’s incident, with Russian Federation imposing economic sanctions and revoking a visa-free agreement, while Turkey has sought to cool tensions, seeing the Paris climate change talks that start this week as a chance to mend ties.

Police detained two organizers, but the group said they were let go when law enforcement discovered they were municipal lawmakers. Of the two pilots on board, one was shot and killed as he parachuted down, the second was rescued by Syrian and Russian forces.

But Russia already had all but banned citizens from vacationing in Turkey in the wake of the downing of the plane, ordering travel agents to stop selling package tours.