Turkey Summons Russia Envoy over Alleged 'Airspace Breach'
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Turkey's foreign ministry accused a Russian SU-34 jet of violating Turkish airspace despite radar warnings and said that the Russian ambassador was summoned over the incident.
The Turkish foreign ministry claimed in a statement on Saturday that the violation, which allegedly occurred on Friday, was a clear sign that Russia wanted issues between the two countries to escalate.
"Turkish air elements warned the aircraft of Russian Federation several times on Friday in Russian and English. This violation is also a new and concrete indicator of Russian Federation's actions which aims accelerating problems despite open warnings by our country and by NATO," the written statement said.
The Russian defense ministry dismissed the allegations as "baseless propaganda".
"There has not been a single violation of Turkish airspace by Russia air force planes in Syria," ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies.
However, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that a Russian jet breached the skies over his country and warned Russia of "consequences" if it continued to violate Turkish airspace.
"The airspace that is violated is not only Turkish airspace but NATO's as well," Erdogan said, Al Jazeera reported.
Turkey shot down a Russian warplane in November in an incident that wrecked relations between the two countries, both of which are involved in Syria's war.
The Russian defense ministry acknowledged that a Su-24 fighter jet crashed in Syria as a result of fire from the ground but said the plane had stayed within Syrian airspace and that "objective monitoring data confirm this".
