Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, urged Moscow on Monday to reconsider economic sanctions it issued after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane on Nov. 24, but refused to apologise for the incident. “We hope that Russia will reconsider these reactions, these measures, which will be against our interests both,” Davutoglu said.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin ordered the sanctions on Saturday, which included bans on some Turkish exports, a prohibition on the hiring of Turkish nationals from 2016 and a suspension of visa-free travel for Turkish citizens. Relations between Ankara and Moscow have soured since Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber over the Turkish-Syrian border on Nov. 24.
Turkey has argued that the downing of the Russian plane was justified because the aircraft violated Turkish airspace. Russia insists that the plane did not leave Syria, where it is flying an air campaign to support Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad against rebel forces and extremists, and has demanded an apology.
“No Turkish prime minister or president or authority will apologise because of doing our duty. “Our military did their job when they protected our airspace, our airspace and our border is an issue of national security, but even more an issue of dignity to us,” Davutoglu said.
Ankara is ready to talk with Moscow to prevent similar incidents in the future, the prime minister added. Putin rejected Recep Erdogan’s efforts to arrange a meeting between the two leaders on Monday on the sidelines of the UN climate summit in Paris.
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