News / Russia

Turkey must apologize to Russia for last year jet downing: Deputy FM

Monday, 08 February 2016 11:17 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 08 February 2016 11:27 AM ]

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov (file photo)

Russia has called on Turkey to stop stirring tension between the two countries and apologize for the downing of its Su-24 bomber jet in November last year.

“The Turkish side knows very well what needs to be done in order to return to normal Russian-Turkish relations. What we said several weeks ago still stands today,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov told RIA Novosti in an interview on Monday.

Meshkov stressed that normalization of relations between the two countries depends on the Turkish side.

"Instead of intensifying the situation and making completely invented claims against Russia, it would be better to look into the mirror and do what is done within civilized intergovernmental relations. Our position hasn’t changed,”

Earlier, Meshkov said that Turkish authorities should compensate Russia for the downing of the Su-24 bomber jet last year, as well as apologize and guarantee that the incident does not happen again. Turkish Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said that his country had no intentions of doing such things.

Tensions between Moscow and Ankara sharply escalated when Turkey on November 24, 2015 downed the Su-24 fighter jet over Syria, claiming that it had entered Turkish airspace, an accusation strongly rejected by Moscow.

Of the two pilots aboard the warplane, one was rescued with the help of the Syrian army, but the other was killed by militants fighting the Syrian government.

Russia suspended all military deals with Turkey and imposed a number of economic sanctions on the country following the incident.

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