“It is playing with fire to go as far as mistreating our citizens who have gone to Russia”, Erdogan told supporters during a speech in Bayburt, in northeast Turkey.
Advertisement
The Kremlin has not yet revealed whether President Putin will accept Erdogan’s offer.
The rising of tension between Moscow and Ankara over Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane can be settled through mutual discretion and prudence, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif asserted on Friday.
“Russia is obliged to prove its allegations, otherwis it will be considered a liar because of those grave and unfair accusations targeting Turkey”. “I hope that something like this doesn’t occur again”.
Mr Erdogan said he may speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the UN Climate Conference in Paris next week, a discussion that would be welcomed by the United States and European Union, which both fear the spat has detracted from the battle against Islamic State militants in Syria.
“We warned them to avoid entering Turkish airspace before they did, and we warned them many times”, said a senior Turkish official of the incident, speaking to Reuters.
“We believe that the Turkish leadership has crossed the line of what is acceptable”, he said at the start of talks with Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Moscow.
Turkey’s president has said he is “saddened” that Turkish forces shot down a Russian combat jet on the Syrian border.
The fearless Moscow leader warned Russia’s cooperation with the US-led coalition will be jeopardised if there is any repeat of “unacceptable” military action against his airforce.
The Foreign Ministry in Ankara said it was issuing the warning as Turkish travelers were facing “problems” in Russian Federation.
President Putin, who condemned the incident as a “treacherous stab in the back”, has since refused to take telephone calls from the Turkish leader.
Earlier, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow expected Turkey and other countries to respect the inviolability of marine traffic through the Black Sea straits as laid out in the Montreux Convention.
Advertisement
He added that Russian planes were easily identifiable and Turkey was making excuses for its actions.Putin said there was “no doubt” that oil from “terrorist-controlled” territory in Syria was making its way across the border into Turkey.
