Dubai: Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to contact Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan because Ankara refuses to apologise for the downing of a Russian warplane, Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s aide, said on Friday.
He said the Kremlin had received a request from Ankara regarding a possible meeting between the two leaders at a climate conference in Paris on November 30 and that Putin would be informed about it later on Friday.
“I would like to meet him face to face on Monday,” Erdogan said, referring to Putin, after days of tit-for-tat accusations over the incident that has severely damaged ties.
Turkey says the Russian plane strayed into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings but Russia insisted it did not cross the border and accused Ankara of a “planned provocation.”
“It was an automatic response to the air space violation,” Erdogan said. “Turkey did not deliberately down the Russian warplane.”
He said that backing the regime in Damascus after more than four years of war that has killed 250,000 people was like “playing with fire”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow has decided to suspend visa-free travel with Turkey. He said on Friday Turkey has been reluctant to share information with Moscow about it citizens accused of involvement in terrorist activities.
He also said that Moscow had questions whether Turkey had real intentions to fight terrorism.
“We have more and more questions about the activity of Ankara and its real commitment to eradicating terrorism,” Lavrov told a news conference after meeting his Syrian counterpart Walid Al Muallem in Moscow.
In Stockholm, the United Nation’s top Syria diplomat said on Friday that Turkey’s downing of the Russian jet risks harming the Syrian peace process.
“It certainly did not help... there is a likelihood of it complicating this,” UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said about political negotiations over peace or a cease fire.
