Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Russia should not “play with fire,” referring to sanctions that the country is threatening to place on Turkey.
“We very sincerely recommend to Russia not to play with fire,” Erdogan said in a televised speech. “We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia … We don’t want these relations to suffer harm in any way.”
“I would like to meet [Russian President Vladimir Putin] face-to-face in Paris,” Erdogan added, referring to United Nations climate change talks being held there next week. “I would like to bring the issue to a reasonable point. We are disturbed that the issue has been escalated.”
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday that Russia was working on “a system of response measures” as a result of Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian SU-24 bomber flying in Turkish airspace on Tuesday. One pilot was shot to death as he tried to eject, while a second was rescued by Russian and Syrian special forces.
On Friday, Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Levrov said Moscow will suspend visa-free travel with Turkey, as one of those responses.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu defended his country’s action in an editorial, writing, “Turkey took action, based on standing rules of engagement,” and added that “measures to defend our territory will remain in place.”
Turkey has maintained that the bomber refused to vacate its airspace even after repeated calls to do so, a claim that the surviving Russian pilot disputes. Erdogan has rejected Russia’s calls to apologize.
Medvedev has asked that his cabinet draft sanctions against Turkey by the end of the weekend.
