Turkey won’t apologize to Russian Federation over warplane downing

Turkey claims the plane had violated its airspace near the Syrian border, while Russia says it was in Syrian airspace while taking part in Russian military operations there.

Turkey shot down the plane on Tuesday after it entered its airspace from Syria, ignoring several warnings.

Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been locked in a furious war of words since the incident and the Kremlin strongman rejected the Turkish leader’s offer of face-to-face talks on the sidelines of the climate conference in the French capital.

Saying his country will not apologize for downing a Russian warplane, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu struck a defiant note after meeting with his North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies. It placed a ban on some Turkish goods and forbid extensions of labor contracts for Turkish citizens working in Russian Federation as of January 1.

The Russian air force said Monday that its Su-34 fighter bombers in Syria were now armed with air-to-air missiles for defense.

That Russian was killed by Syrian rebels after his jet was shot down by the Turkish military over violation of its flying zone rules.

Defence official Igor Klimov said the missiles were capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 37 miles (60km).

While the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief backed Turkey’s right to protect border and airspace, he also said that the alliance would support efforts to defuse tensions. “So the airplane was in Turkey, it was engaged in Turkey”.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin ordered the sanctions on Saturday, which included bans on some Turkish exports, a prohibition on the hiring of Turkish nationals from 2016 and a suspension of visa-free travel for Turkish citizens. The measures also call for ending chartered flights from Russia to Turkey and for Russian tourism companies to stop selling vacation packages that would include a stay in Turkey.