Mevlut Cavusoglu was speaking Thursday night after his first meeting with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during an OSCE summit in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.
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The Kremlin has imposed trade sanctions on Turkey over last week’s jet incident although so far the measures have not affected the Russian energy exports to Turkey that are the core of their economic relationship.
Davutoglu insisted Turkey did not know the nationality of the plane it downed inside Turkish air space.
Ties between Ankara and Moscow soured after a Russian SU-24 bomber was shot down by a Turkish F-16 along the Syrian-Turkish border, allegedly for violating Turkish airspace.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has challenged Putin and said he will step down if Russian claims that Turkey buys oil from ISIL are proven. “We would not apologise for defending our borders”. Moscow has already banned some Turkish food imports as part of a wider retaliatory sanctions package. Mr Lavrov called the sanctions “adequate”, adding that “most observers” agree.
Turkish government agreed with Azerbaijan to accelerate the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), aiming to complete the gas project before 2018.
The start of the meeting on the sidelines of the ministerial council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe was also confirmed by a diplomatic source in Belgrade. “We will hear what Cavusoglu has to say”, he said.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told on Thursday December 3, 2015 “The negotiations on Turkish stream have been suspended”.
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Daesh is an Arabic term for the Islamic State jihadist group, which has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq. “We reject it outright, and frankly, we question some of these allegations that have been leveled against the family”, he said. Turkey has strongly rejected Russian allegations that it has any links with the ISIL militants.
