Erdoğan, Obama speak over the phone on the recent downing of Russian jet
by Daily Sabah
ISTANBULNov 24, 2015 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah
Nov 24, 2015 12:00 am
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke with his US counterpart Obama over the phone on the recent downing of Russian jet on late Tuesday.
According to the statement released by the Turkish Presidency, US President Obama reiterated the commitment of the US and NATO to Turkey's right to defend its sovereignty and borders.
"Both presidents expressed their common will to take measures to prevent any incidents alike and to de-escalate current tensions between Turkey and Russia," the statement added, further stating that the two leaders also emphasized their determination to continue joint anti-terror operations against DAESH.
A Russian fighter jet was shot down Tuesday morning by the Turkish Air Forces as part of the rules of engagement and violation of airspace in the Kızıldağ region near Turkey's Hatay province close to the Syrian border.
"Nobody should be in doubt that we made our best efforts to avoid the latest incident. Everyone must respect the right of Turkey to protect its borders," Erdoğan said in a speech at the annual "Teacher's Day" reception held at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on Tuesday, which was his first official reaction to the downing of the war plane.
"We downed 1 of 2 warplanes of unknown nationality that violated our airspace upon 10 warnings" he added.
He underlined that Russian airstrikes against Daesh-free, Turkmen-majority areas in Syria aimed to support the Assad regime.
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