Turkey says Russia should not violate its airspace to avoid repeat plane shoot down

Hürriyet File Photo

Turkey has made clear that Russian military airplanes should stop violating Turkey’s airspace if they wish to ensure Turkish forces will not shoot down any more Russian airplanes. 

“If the Russian Federation also guarantees that there will not be any airspace violations, a similar incident will not happen again,” Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç told reporters on Dec. 16 while commenting on recent remarks by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov.

Earlier on Dec. 16, Meshkov said Turkey should guarantee that a similar incident will not happen in future and added that Turkey should compensate Russia for shooting down a Russian military plane near the Turkish-Syrian border last month.

Bilgiç ruled out compensation to Russia as well as the other two conditions set by Moscow, saying, “The Russian airplane was shot down because it violated our airspace. Meeting of the Russian side’s demands is not possible.”

Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov recently set an apology from the Turkish side for the downing of the Russian jet leading to the deaths of two Russian soldiers as the first condition, while he said they expected the people responsible for this act to be found and held accountable. The third condition was for Turkey to pay compensation for the damage of the incident.