"Erdogan has openly changed long established trends and generally accepted standards in diplomacy. As a result, he does not notice the insensitivity issue. But this is why voters love him. They are the only ones he cares about. At the same time Erdogan always puts his foot in his mouth," the independent left daily observed.
The media outlet offered Erdogan's stance on the Su-24 downing to support the point. By saying that Russia lost Turkey because of the two pilots, Erdogan unintentionally highlighted how important those pilots were for Moscow as well as the extent to which he does not value his own people.
The Turkish president, according to BirGün, appears to have genuinely hoped that for Russia friendship with Ankara would be more vital than human life.
A combination picture taken from video shows a war plane crashing in flames in a mountainous area in northern Syria after it was shot down by Turkish fighter jets near the Turkish-Syrian border November 24, 2015
© REUTERS / Reuters TV/Haberturk
29 February 2016, 14:35 GMT
A Turkish fighter jet shot down the Russian Su-24 bomber over the Syrian territory, citing airspace violations. Russian defense officials and the other pilot dismissed the allegations as unfounded. The bomber, which was on an anti-Daesh mission in northern Latakia, did not receive any warnings before the incident.
One pilot was fatally shot from the ground by Turkmen militants while descending by parachute. The Turkmen are a Turkic ethnic group living in Syria, Iraq and Iran, which are backed by Ankara.
Russia's relations with Turkey took a major hit following the incident.
