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(CNN)Turkey will not apologize for downing a Russian fighter jet it says violated Turkish airspace near the Syrian border, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an exclusive CNN interview Thursday in Ankara.
"I think if there is a party that needs to apologize, it is not us," he said from the Turkish capital. "Those who violated our airspace are the ones who need to apologize. Our pilots and our armed forces, they simply fulfilled their duties, which consisted of responding to ... violations of the rules of engagement. I think this is the essence."
In a meeting with community leaders in Ankara, Erdogan said, "If the same violation occurs today, Turkey has to react the same way."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Turkey of intentionally bringing relations with Russia into a ‘gridlock’ following the incident with the downed Russian bomber in Syria.
The Turkish government has made no steps towards clearing up the situation with Russia after the Tuesday incident at the Syrian-Turkish border. The country has neither offered any compensation nor expressed any apologies over the death of the Russian pilot, thus apparently deliberately dampening relations with Moscow, Putin stressed in his speech at the presentation of foreign ambassadors’ letters of credence in the Kremlin on Thursday.
...
“We have still not heard any comprehensible apologies from the Turkish political leaders or any offers to compensate for the damage caused or promises to punish the criminals for their crime,” Russian president said.
“One gets the impression that the Turkish leaders are deliberately leading Russian-Turkish relations into a gridlock – and we are sorry to see this,” he added.
originally posted by: whyamIhere
Not every Country draws red lines then ignores when they are crossed.
Some people mean what they say.
Isn't Vladimir already getting stretched a little thin.
originally posted by: ~Lucidity
Good for them. Stuff happens during war, and they have no need to apologize. That jet could have easily gone in the other direction, and from what I can tell was not responding either?
Wasn't it just last week that Russia was warning Israel about staying out of airspace Russia was controlling over Lebanon and Syria? [Source]
originally posted by: ~Lucidity
a reply to: InnerPeace2012
It's war. Anything could happen at any moment with tensions high.
Hospitals get hit, right? Innocents die, right? And the military takes losses.
Russian and Turkey will work it out. With or without intervention. Or they won't.
I don't think Turkey has a damn thing to apologize for.
"The American side, which leads the coalition that Turkey belongs to, knew about the location and time of our planes' flights, and we were hit exactly there and at that time," Putin said in Moscow Thursday. "Why did we give this information to the Americans if they did not pass it along to the rest of the coalition?" [Source]
President Obama pointed the finger at Russia over its warplane being shot down by Turkey, suggesting the incident might not have happened if Moscow were more concerned with hitting ISIS targets than moderate opposition to Syria’s Bashar Assad – a campaign that puts them dangerously close to the Turkish border.
The president, speaking Tuesday alongside visiting French President Francois Hollande in Washington, stressed that officials are still gathering details on the international incident.]Obama
We know for a fact, that Russia is has no plans of reducing it's military operations against ISIS, in fact they are beefing up their air security to destroy any potentially dangerous targets.