Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree adopting a series of retaliatory economic measures against Turkey over the downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border.
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In an assessment of the circumstances of the incident, the General Staff of Russian Federation said it was a deliberate, carefully planned action, according to radioelectronic surveillance data.
Erdogna said: “We wish it hadn’t happened, but it happened”.
“I would like to meet him face to face on Monday”, Erdogan said after days of tit-for-tat accusations over the incident that has severely damaged ties.
“If we allow our sovereign rights to be violated… then the territory would no longer be our territory”, Mr Erdogan said.
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.
But the Russian President is refusing to contact Mr Erdogan directly because Ankara does not want to apologise, a Putin aide said.
The incident comes as Russian-Turkish tensions are at a low point over the four-year civil war in Syria, where Syria’s backers, Russia and Iran, have clashed with the U.S.-led global coalition against ISIS.
The Turkish government warned citizens against non-urgent travel to Russia, the latest in the mounting tensions between the two countries after the downing of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey.
But Erdogan insists Putin should say sorry for flying into his air space.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also said he hoped a meeting between Erdogan and Putin would take place in Paris.
Turkey’s president has said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments after he met in Moscow with French President Francois Hollande were “unacceptable”.
“I think if there is a party that needs to apologize, it is not us”, he said from the Turkish capital.
“A proposal from the Turkish side about a meeting at the level of heads of state has been delivered to the president”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on a conference call on Friday.
After the incident, Turkey was reported to have suspended air strikes against IS militants in Syria as part of “a mutual decision taken with Russian Federation, which has also halted its aerial campaign near the Turkish border”, Turkish media quoted officials as saying.
The researchers also dispute Russia’s claim that the jet made a 90-degree turn once hit.
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He added that if the pilots had responded to the Turkish warnings and informed them that they were Russians, the shooting would not have occurred either.
