MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Monday, the Kremlin announced that Erdogan had sent a letter regarding the incident with the Russian plane, saying "Excuse us" and pledging to take any steps to "relieve the pain and severity of damage" caused to the family of the pilot killed during the incident.
"It's clear that the decline in Russians traveling to Turkey on holiday have pressured Erdogan to normalize the relationship with Russia and Putin. Furthermore the trade relationship between Russia and Turkey is so important that Erdogan is willing to do almost everything to be friends with Russia," Vistisen said.
There has been a 35-percent decline in Turkey’s tourism industry, underlined by a five-fold drop in the number of Russian tourists visiting resorts in Turkey's Antalya alone in comparison to last year, according to Antalya's tourism department.
Russia has repeatedly said that Turkey should apologize for downing the plane and cover any material losses to the country and the pilot's family, as well as punish those responsible for the incident.
