MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Thursday, Turkey’s Supreme Military Council (YAS) held a meeting under the leadership of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, discussing the recent events on the Turkey-Syria border and the state of Russia-Turkey relations after the Su-24 incident.
Turkey’s General Staff said in a statement issued after the meeting that diplomatic and military channels with Russia remain operational and that the General Staff is taking measures to prevent incidents similar to the Su-24 downing from happening again.
On Tuesday, a Russian Su-24 jet crashed in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the plane was downed by an air-to-air missile launched by a Turkish F-16 jet over Syrian territory, falling 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Turkish border. Putin described the Turkish attack as a "stab in the back" carried out by "accomplices of terrorists."
Ankara claimed it downed the Russian airplane because it violated Turkish airspace. Both the Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command confirmed that the Su-24 never crossed into Turkish airspace.
On Wednesday, Davutoglu said that Turkey had no intentions of severing ties with Russia or remain in a tense state following the incident.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that Russia was cutting all military contacts with Turkey over the Su-24 downing.
Russian aircraft have been conducting airstrikes against Islamic State radicals in Syria since September 30, at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
