Erdogan wants to meet Putin ‘face to face’ at Paris climate summit

Protesters shout slogans and hold a poster depicting Russian president Vladimir Putin and reading "Putin, killer!" during a demonstration against Russia in Istanbul on November 27, 2015. Cagdas Erdogan/AFP PhotoShow less

ANKARA // Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he wanted to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin “face to face” on the sidelines of the climate summit in Paris on Monday.

Tensions are running high between the two countries after Turkey shot down a Russian plane over northern Syria on Tuesday, claiming the jet had entered its airspace.

Mr Erdogan said Ankara did not deliberately down the plane and dismissed Mr Putin’s criticism of the incident as “unacceptable”. The Russian president has described the incident as “treachery” and a “stab in the back”.

“We very sincerely recommend to Russia not to play with fire,” the president told supporters during a speech in Bayburt, north-east Turkey. “We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia ... We don’t want these relations to suffer harm in any way.”

Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Mr Putin, said the Kremlin had received a request from Ankara regarding a possible meeting between the two leaders at the summit, and that the Russian president would be informed about it later on Friday.

However, Mr Ushakov also said Mr Putin has refused to contact the Turkish president because Ankara does not want to apologise for the downing of the Russian plane.

“We see Turkey’s unwillingness to simply apologise for the incident with the plane,” he said.

Also on Friday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Ankara had crossed the line by shooting down the plane and warned the incident could severely undermine Turkey’s interests.

“We believe that the Turkish leadership has crossed the line of what is acceptable,” Mr Lavrov said at the start of talks with his Syrian counterpart, Walid Muallem, in Moscow.

Ankara “risks putting Turkey in a most severe situation, with respect to both its long-term national interests and the situation in the region,” he said.

The pilot of the downed Russian plane, along with a special forces soldier sent to rescue him, were killed by Syrian rebels on the ground.

They were Moscow’s first combat deaths since it launched a bombing campaign in Syria on September 30.

* Agence France-Presse, Reuters