Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Russia it would endure “consequences” if it continued such violations, and he called the Russian actions “irresponsible”.
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“A Russian combat aircraft violated Turkish airspace yesterday (Saturday), despite repeated warnings by the Turkish authorities”, Xinhua quoted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as saying on Saturday.
Since September, Russian warplanes have been carrying out airstrikes on Syrian rebels in support of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Turkey summoned Russian Federation over the country’s SU-34 violation of Turkey’s airspace, Turkish foreign ministry said.
Konashenkov also stressed that neither Russia’s air defense systems in Syria nor Syria’s airspace controlling radar stations had recorded any violations of the air border between Syria and Turkey.
“These kinds of irresponsible acts not only damage NATO-Russian relations but also the regional and global peace”, the president stressed, as his country is a NATO member.
“We emphasise once again the fact that Russian Federation will be held responsible for any dire consequences which can emerge from such irresponsible acts”.
“We regard this infringement which came despite all our warnings in Russian and in English as an effort by Russia to escalate the crisis in the region” Erdogan told reporters before departing on a Latin American tour.
The Russian envoy was called to the ministry, where the incident was protested and condemned. According to Ankara, the incident involved a Russian Su-34 and took place on Friday.
Following the incident, Russia imposed sanctions against Turkey and deployed S-400 missiles at a Russian air force base in Syria.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, Major-General Igor Konashenkov denied that any Russian plane had entered Turkish airspace, and called the allegation “pure propaganda”.
Stoltenberg on Saturday made clear that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would stand by Turkey, the second largest military power in the alliance after the United States.
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Turkish air force shot down the Russian jet on November 24 claiming it has violated Turkish airspace, whereas Moscow insisted the Su-24 stayed over Syria during its flight.
