Jets believed to be Russian hit Syrian town near Turkish border – monitor

Russian Federation has threatened economic retaliation, a response Mr. Erdogan has dismissed as emotional and indecorous.

“We have chose to suspend the visa-free regime between Russian Federation and Turkey”.

In early October, Russian warplanes breached Turkish airspace.

Russian missiles have destroyed ammunition bunkers, command points and a suicide bomb factory in towns including Salma, Ghmam and Kesladshuq to the west of Syria’s Alawite mountains, according to the data, an area humanitarian groups say is ethnically Turkmen.

“What we agreed, and this is important, is to strike only terrorists and Daesh (Islamic State) and to not strike forces that are fighting terrorism”, said the French President. President Vladimir Putin wants an apology from Turkey before he will speak to Mr Erdogan.

He accused Moscow of seeking to use the downing of the jet as an “excuse to make unacceptable accusations against us”, and accused Russians of “mistreating” Turkish citizens who were in the country for a trade fair.

Speaking at a news conference after the talks, President Putin even suggested that Turkey had shot down the Russian bomber this week after receiving information about its location from the US.

Turkey is a major backer of Syrian rebels and has previously warned Russian Federation not to violate its airspace. The Russian President however, is refusing to engage with Mr Erdogan directly because of Ankara’s refusal to apologise for the downing of the Russian jet, a Putin aide said.

Erdogan’s expression of regret Saturday was the first since Tuesday’s incident in which Turkish F-16 jets shot down the Russian jet on grounds that it had violated Turkey’s airspace despite repeated warnings to change course. He also complained that Turkey was deporting Russians to countries that are not friendly to Russia without giving Russia proper notice. He said it was easily identifiable and its co-ordinates had been passed on to Turkey’s ally, the US.

Separately, warplanes believed to be Russian carried out several air strikes on a Syrian town near the Turkish border on Friday, a monitoring group said, one of several reported close to the boundary this week. Lavrov, Moscow’s foreign minister, said on Friday Russia had “more and more questions” about Ankara’s commitment to eradicating terrorism. “They [our planes] have identification signs and these are well visible”.