Turkey will not apologise for downing Russian fighter jet: PM

Turkish PM says protection of our airspace, our border is not only a right but a duty for my government

BRUSSELS: Turkey will not apologise for downing a Russian fighter jet along the Syrian border but urged Moscow to reconsider retaliatory sanctions in the hope of calming the crisis, Turkish Premier Ahmet Davutoglu said Monday.

"Protection of our airspace, our border is not only a right but a duty for my government and no Turkish premier or president ... will apologise (for) doing our duty," Davutoglu told a joint press conference with NATO head Jens Stoltenberg after talks in Brussels.



Davutoglu added that "we hope Russia will reconsider these measures in both our interests", referring to the sanctions that Moscow imposed after the shooting down of the jet earlier this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a meeting with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the climate conference in Paris, the Kremlin said, as a dispute rages over Ankara’s downing of a Russian warplane.

“No meeting with Erdogan is planned. There is no discussion of such a meeting,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists.



Putin’s snub comes after the Turkish leader called for face-to-face talks with Putin on the sidelines of the summit to discuss the shooting down of the plane on the Syria-Turkish border.

Earlier on Saturday, Putin signed a decree adopting a series of retaliatory economic measures against Turkey over the downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border.

The sanctions are “aimed at ensuring national security and that of Russian citizens” and included a ban on charter flights between the two countries and on Russian businesses hiring any new Turkish nationals as well as import restrictions on certain Turkish goods, according to a text of the decree released by the Kremlin.