Ankara: Surviving crew of downed Russian plane, Capt. Konstantin Murakhtin on Wednesday denied that their jet had veered into Turkey's airspace “even for a single second.” He also rejected the Turkey's claim that it had issued repeated warnings to the Russian crew before shooting down the plane.
Speaking in televised comments from the base, the surviving navigator of the downed plane said, “There have been no warnings whatsoever,” and added that he wants to keep flying missions from the base “to pay them back for my commander.”
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu today claimed that his country was unaware that the plane brought down over its airspace on Tuesday was Russian until Ankara "learned after the announcements of the Russian authorities."
Seeking to reduce tensions with Moscow, Davutoglu told his AK party members in the parliament building that Russia is Turkey's "friend and neighbour."
He again defended Turkey's action, saying Russia was warned on several occasions that Turkey would take action if iits border was violated in line with its military rules of engagement.
The Turkish prime minister also criticised Russian and Syrian operations in Syria's Turkmen region and demanded that operations there stop immediately.
Russian President Putin said the Russian plane remained in Syria's skies when it was shot down. He described Turkey's action as a “crime” and a “stab in the back,” warning of serious consequences.
He said a warning from the Russian Foreign Ministry for Russians not to visit Turkey was needed “because we can't exclude some other incidents following what happened yesterday and our citizens in Turkey could be in significant danger.”
On Wednesday, the Russian leader ordered the military to deploy the S-400s to Hemeimeem and take other measures that “should be sufficient to ensure flight safety.”
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday that the Russian missile cruiser Moskva already has moved closer to shore to protect the Russian aircraft flying missions near Syria's border with Turkey with its long-range Fort air defense system.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Ministry in today said that foreign ministers of Turkey and Russia have agreed to meet for talks after the tension between the two countries has heightened.
Russia's foreign minister, however, said that a meeting hadn't been confirmed.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said in a written statement that Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov agreed to a meeting "in the coming days," during a telephone conversation today.
Bilgic said during their conversation, Cavusoglu briefed Lavrov on Turkey's action.
The two agreed to share details on the incident through "diplomatic and military channels."
But Lavrov said during a live TV interview that they had no concrete plans for a meeting. Lavrov said that Cavusoglu suggested they could meet at the sidelines of some event, but added that he has no such plans.
(With inputs from AP)
