Russian Federation and Turkey have accused each other of aiding ISIL, but both say they are battling the militants who have taken swathes of land in Iraq and Syria.
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Turkey shot down the plane on Tuesday after it entered its airspace from Syria, ignoring several warnings.
At Russia’s request, the pilot had been given Orthodox funeral rites, and his body would be handed over to Russia, Turkey’s semi-official Anadolu news agency reported. He has been identified as Lt. Col. Oleg Peshkov.
But on Saturday, he explained he was “saddened” from the downing of the jet.
He added that the issue of different coalitions operating in Syria with differing objectives meant similar incidents could happen in the future without improved information sharing and coordination. Moscow has ruled out any military response against North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey, but it has pledged broad retaliatory measures targeting entire sectors of the Turkish economy including tourism, agriculture and investments.
Erdogan appealed for dialogue, saying the United Nations climate change conference in Paris, which he and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to attend, would be a good place to have such talks.
The government has been tasked by the president with introducing a ban on charter flights between Russian Federation and Turkey.
Turkey is one of Russia’s leading trade partners and the economies of the two countries are intimately integrated.
“The pilot who lost his life during the air violation was received by us on the (Syrian) border last night”, Davutoglu told reporters in Istanbul before leaving for a meeting with European Union leaders in Brussels.
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Russian Federation is a staunch ally of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey and its Western allies have supported rebel groups seeking to overthrow his rule.
