The president also attacked Russia’s policy in Syria after it launched air strikes in September, accusing the Kremlin of backing the regime of “murderer” President Bashar al-Assad.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande attend news conference after meeting at Kremlin, Moscow, November 26, 2015. Both nations are on the same side, supporting US-led coalition air strikes, yet appear more interested in pushing strategic interests.
“We warned them to avoid entering Turkish airspace before they did, and we warned them many times”, said a senior Turkish official of the incident, speaking to Reuters.
Moscow says it could also curtail a multi-billion euro nuclear power plant that it is building in Turkey and on a gas pipeline project.
Mr Lavrov later said he supports France’s proposal to shut down the Turkish-Syrian border as a way to fight Islamic State fighters in Syria.
That has soured previously friendly relations between Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“They [our planes] have identification signs and these are well visible”, Mr. Putin said, AFP reported.
Turkey claims the Sukhoi Su-24 was warned numerous times before being shot down by two of its F16 jets for violating Turkish airspace.
Konashenkov added that the Russian strikes helped Syrian ground forces take control of the mountainous area in the north of the Latakia province.
The surviving pilot said no warning had been given and the aircraft did not violate the Turkish air space, although Turkey insists that it gave 10 warnings in five minutes.
But he said he would order Russia’s military to intensify cooperation with the French armed forces – including exchanges of information about targets – and viewed that as part of creating a broader worldwide coalition bringing together Russian Federation and Western states.
He also called for blacklisting a Syrian rebel group whose members killed the pilot of the Russian plane and one member of a rescue party.
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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.
