ANKARA (Sputnik) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday he tried to get through to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over the phone after the downing of the Su-24 jet.
26 November 2015, 18:18 GMT
"After the incident with the downed Russian plane, I called Head of the Russian State Putin but he never picked up," Erdogan told France 24 TV channel in an interview.
On Tuesday, a Russian Su-24 combat aircraft crashed in Syria while carrying out precision strikes against terrorists. It was downed by an air-to-air missile, fired from a Turkish F-16 fighter in response to alleged violation of Turkish airspace.
The Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command confirmed that the Su-24 never crossed into Turkish airspace and was downed on Syrian territory.
Following the incident, Putin wondered why Ankara turned to its partners in NATO to discuss the issue, instead of imminently contacting Moscow.
