Russia Says Turkey Should Pay Compensation for Downed Jet as Crisis Escalates

A war plane crashing in flames in a mountainous area in northern Syria after it was shot down by Turkish fighter jets near the Turkish-Syrian border.

Even so, there is little Turkey can do about the Russian airstrikes without provoking a situation in which North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would be forced to come to its defence – any intervention, Erdemir said, “could further escalate the Turkish-Russian crisis, prompting heavier sanctions, and even new episodes of clashes between the two armies”.

He said Moscow had been willing to accommodate Turkey’s interests and he was stunned to see Ankara had not tried to explain its action and immediately turned to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation for help instead.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Meshkov said on Wednesday that Turkey should pay compensation for shooting down the plane.

Turkey’s ability to retaliate against the Russian bombing campaign is now severely limited by “the de-facto no-fly zone” Russia has created in the north, said Metin Gurcan, a Turkish military expert.

Putin said Russian Federation was ready to persuade separatists in eastern Ukraine that a compromise was needed in order to achieve a political settlement of the conflict there.

Also on Wednesday, the German military said it has flown its first mission in support of the U.S.-led coalition effort against the militant Islamic State group in Syria.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says it’s unacceptable that a solution to the Syrian civil war depends on the fate of one man – President Bashar Assad.

According to Gutenev, Shoigu said that there is no quick end in sight for the Russian operation because extremist groups are getting new recruits and unspecified other nations fail to offer a strong contribution in the fight against terrorism.

Serious differences remain between Russia and the United States over ways to resolve the Syria crisis, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said yesterday, a day after US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin says the Syrian people themselves must determine who rules the country.

Russian Federation believes that ethnic Syrian Kurds must be included in any future Syrian peace talks, the RIA news agency quoted Meshkov as saying.

“We support the participation of a wide circle of opposition forces, which represent the Syrian people, in the Syrian negotiating process”.