The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has called for a meeting with Vladimir Putin after a Russian jet violated Turkey’s airspace near the Syrian border. Turkey claims that a Russian fighter jet ignored radar warnings not to violate its airspace on Friday.
Officials have claimed that the Su-34 jet ignored several warnings delivered both in Russian and in English by radar units before travelling into Turkish airspace. Erdoğan said on Saturday: “I told our foreign ministry to convey my desire to meet Mr Putin personally. There has been no answer on this yet.”
The incident prompted Ankara to call in the Russian ambassador for an emergency meeting.
“This violation is a concrete indication of Russia’s acts aiming to escalate problems, despite the clear warning by our country and by Nato,” Turkey’s foreign ministry said. “We openly and clearly call on Russia to act responsibly so that the Turkish air space, which is a Nato airspace, is not violated. We stress once again that all the responsibility for any unwanted grave consequences as a result of any such irresponsible behaviour will belong entirely to the Russian Federation,” the statement said.
However, Russian officials have dismissed the claims as “baseless propaganda”. Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said: “There has not been a single violation of Turkish airspace by Russia air force planes in Syria.
“The Turkish declarations concerning the alleged violation of its airspace by a Russian Su-34 are baseless propaganda.”
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, urged Russia to act responsibly and to fully respect Nato airspace. “Russia must take all necessary measures to ensure that such violations do not happen again,” he said. “Previous incidents have shown how dangerous such behaviour is.”
The two leaders have not met since November, when a Turkish F-16 shot down a Russian Su-24 jet which, it said, had violated its airspace. It was the first time a Nato country and Russia have been involved in direct fire over the conflict in Syria. The action triggered a diplomatic rupture that saw Russia impose economic sanctions on Turkey.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries, which have strong economic links, have since nosedived. Vladimir Putin described the incident as a stab in the back.
Ankara and the Kremlin gave conflicting accounts of the incident, which occurred in an area near the Turkey-Syria border straddling Iskenderun and Latakia. The Turkish UN ambassador, Halit Cevik, told the security council that two planes had flown a mile into Turkey for 17 seconds. Russia’s defence ministry confirmed that one of its planes was shot down, but claimed it had never left Syrian airspace. One pilot and a Russian marine in the rescue party were killed in the incident.
• This article was amended on 1 February 2016. An earlier version said the shooting down of a Russian jet by Turkey last November was the first time a Nato country and Moscow had exchanged direct fire over the conflict in Syria. There was no exchange of fire.
