"The killing of the Russian pilot with the downing of the jet is an extremely sad issue. It's an issue that we are sad about. We don't feel regret, but we are sad," Zeybekci said.
At the same time, he said that "we are guessing that they should also be sad about the intentional violation of Turkish airspace," in a clear reference to Russia.
According to Zeybekci, the violation allegedly "lasted for 13 or 14 minutes," in spite of "innumerable warnings" addressed to the pilot.
He said that the conflict between Moscow and Ankara had serious consequences for both sides and that the most reasonable solution in this situation is to try to quickly restore relations.
Turkey has seen a drastic downturn in tourism as a result of the incident and subsequent sanctions. Russians had considered the Turkish coast one of their top foreign travel destinations before the events of November, 2015.
"The reasonable thing is to fix [ties] as soon as possible. The cessation of the negative course of events and start of positive changes means a lot to us," he pointed out.
Both the Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command confirmed that the Russian plane never entered Turkish airspace.
Moscow imposed a number of restrictive measures on Turkey in response to what Russian President Vladimir Putin decried as a "stab in the back."
The Turkish president called the Su-24 incident a pilot's mistake, and said it wasn't worth ruining relations between the two countries.
