Turkish president ‘saddened’ that Russian fighter jet was shot down

It was the first expression of regret by the leader since Tuesday’s incident, in which Turkish F-16 jets shot down the Russian plane on grounds that it had violated Turkey’s airspace despite repeated warnings to change course. “We don’t want these relations to suffer harm in any way”.

“The recent events really saddened us”, Erdogan said in a televised speech in the western city of Baliksehir.

The October 5, 2015 photo shows Russian air force pilots and technicians checking a Russian Sukhoi Su-30 jet fighter at the Hmeimim airbase in the Syrian province of Latakia.

Russia has chose to unilaterally suspend its visa exemption for Turkish citizens starting from January 1, 2016, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.

“It was an automatic response to the air space violation”, Erdogan said.

On Thursday residents said Russian warplanes had bombed the rebel-held Syrian town of Saraqeb along the Turkish border in Idlib province.

Claiming that Turkey’s shooting down of the Russian jet was not “intentional” but simply a result of an automatic enforcement of rules of engagement, Erdoğan nevertheless argued that Turkey was right to do so.

Putin said he believed the US, a coalition ally with Turkey, should have prevented the downing of the plane. In September, Erdogan traveled to Moscow, where he and Putin attended the opening of a new mosque, and they met separately on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit hosted by Turkey. Despite the conciliatory tone of his op-ed, Davutoglu accused Russian Federation of bombing “non-Daesh [another term for ISIS] positions … as well as groups fighting the Assad regime”, as it hopes to weaken all opposition to the Syrian president.

Putin on Friday discussed the downing with his security council, particularly the “increased tensions over Syria against the background of Turkey’s aggressive and unpredictable actions”, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

It also said the operations of Turkish companies in Russia and the employment of Turkish staff by Russian firms would face restrictions and ordered the government to prepare a list of goods, firms and jobs that would be affected.