Moscow Urges Ankara to Stop Exacerbating Crisis in Relations

Ankara knows precisely what needs to be done in order to normalize relations with Moscow and that is to stop making up claims against Russia and to start acting within the framework of intergovernmental relations, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Earlier, Meshkov said that Turkish authorities should compensate Russia for the downing of the Su-24 bomber jet in November 2015, as well as apologize and guarantee that this does not happen again. The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said that Ankara had no intentions of doing this.

“The Turkish side knows very well what needs to be done in order to return to normal Russian-Turkish relations. What we said several weeks ago still stands today,” Meshkov told RIA Novosti in an interview.

“Instead of intensifying the situation and making completely invented claims against Russia, it would be better to look into the mirror and do what is done within civilized intergovernmental relations. Our position hasn’t changed,” Meshkov said.

On November 24, a Turkish F-16 fighter shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber with two pilots on board over Syria.

There have been no high-level contacts between the two countries following the November incident and Moscow's introduction of a series of economic measures against Ankara in response to the plane downing.