Turkey President: No Escalation Wanted after Russian Plane Downing

World | November 25, 2015, Wednesday // 14:31
Bulgaria: Turkey President: No Escalation Wanted after Russian Plane Downing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during the seventh Atlantic Council Energy and Economic Summit in Istanbul, Turkey, November 19, 2015. EPA/BGNES

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made clear Turkey was only defending its security when shooting at a Russian warplane reportedly flying in its airspace close to the border with Syria on Tuesday.

In his words, Ankara had no intention "of escalating the incident" and its goal, apart from defending the country, was to defend "the rights of our brothers", according to Today's Zaman.

This was an apparent reference to Turkmens living in Northern Syria, an ethnic group Turkey considers part of its own population due to ethnic and historic ties. Moscow earlier suggested Turkmens had mingled with Islamic State (IS) fighters where the Russian plane had dropped bombs a little before the incident took place.

According to Erdogan, the plane was shot at while in Turkey's airspace but had crashed inside Syria.

His Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, accused on Wednesday Turkey of purposefully working to incite Radical Islam inside its own territory.

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Tags: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin, Russia, turkey, plane, Syria, Islamic state, IS

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