Turkey: No Apology for Downing Russian Jet

Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Monday his country will not apologize for shooting down a Russian fighter jet last week along the Turkey-Syria border.

He told reporters after a meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels that Turkish forces did their "duty" to protect the country's airspace.

Davutoglu also said he hoped Russia would reconsider economic sanctions that President Vladimir Putin announced in response to the incident.

Sanctions

The sanctions would restrict Russian imports of some Turkish products, prohibit extensions of contracts for Turks working in Russia and impact the operations of Turkish companies in Russia.

The Russian government announced Monday that a ban on fruit and vegetable imports from Turkey will go into effect in several weeks.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would not meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris. The Turkish president said on Friday he hoped to meet his Russian counterpart "face to face" on the sidelines of the summit.

The Russian plane crashed into a rebel-held area in northern Syria last Tuesday.  Turkey and Russia disagree over its flight path, with Turkey saying it violated the country's airspace and Russia insisting it never left Syria.

Pilot body returned

The body of one of the pilots left on a flight from Ankara back to Russia on Monday.  Russian and Syrian forces rescued the plane's second pilot, while another Russian soldier was killed during the rescue effort.

On Monday, the Russian military said Su-34 bombers had for the first time flown a mission in Syria armed not only with bombs, but with air-to-air missiles "for protection."


Fuente: La Voz de América, http://www.voanews.com/content/turkey-says-no-apology-for-downing-russian-jet-/3080281.html

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