But she said an increase in incidents over the past several years appears to correspond to the imposition of Western sanctions against Russian Federation over the crisis in Ukraine.
Advertisement
“President Putin has expressed a few times his willingness to maintain good relations with Turkey and the Turkish people”, Peskov said. Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the Turkish president had expressed regret over the shooting in a letter to Putin, but added that this was not an apology.
Putin and Erdogan will hold a telephone conversation at Moscow’s initiative on Wednesday, Peskov said.
In contrast to Peskov, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Tuesday that the ties are already improved: “We can say that the ice has melted and that the process of normalization has started”.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday called the apology “a very important” step but added that the ties between the two countries would not go back to where they were overnight.
“Compensating Russia is not on the table; we have only expressed our regrets”, CNN-Turk cited him as saying, hours after he said Ankara was ready to offer compensation for the incident that shattered ties between the two countries.
The relations between Russian Federation and Turkey deteriorated after the Su-24 bomber incident.
He added that Erdoğan said he wanted to restore the traditionally friendly relations between Turkey and Russian Federation.
In the fallout after Turkey shot down the Russian jet, Moscow announced several wide-ranging sanctions on Turkey starting in January, including the end of visa-free travel and a ban on Turkish food products.
Advertisement
Yildirim also told reporters in parliament that legal proceedings were underway against an individual allegedly responsible for the killing of the Russian pilot. Turkey provided radar data that the Russian planes breached the border while Moscow insisted that the warplane had not crossed the border. Russian Federation also called for its nationals to boycott Turkey as a tourist destination.
