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Turkish PM positively assesses Russia’s proposal to discuss airspace violations

However, Russia has to take into consideration Turkey’s interests in Syria and should be careful about our airspace, Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu noted

ANKARA, October 7. /TASS/. Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu has supported Russia's initiative to hold consultations on the country’s airspace violation incidents. He said as much while talking to reporters in Istanbul on Wednesday.

"We are pleased to commend Russia’s initiative to discuss these issues, but such negotiations should be held in Ankara and on the basis of direct discussion of the issue. The Syrian crisis is not a crisis between Turkey and Russia, and we do not want tensions with Russia to emerge. Nor do we want it to evolve into the crisis in the Russia-NATO relations. However, Russia has to take into consideration Turkey’s interests in Syria and should be careful about our airspace," Davutoglu said.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said earlier on Wednesday that the ministry had continued to discuss the mechanism of preventing air incidents. "Russian Defense Ministry experts have continued today at the National Defense Control Center consultations with Turkish colleagues on the implementation of the mechanism of preventing incidents in the airspace on the Syrian-Turkish border," he said.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry earlier said that a Russian fighter jet had violated the country’s airspace on October 3. The Russian Defense Ministry said the incident was caused by bad weather, assuring that the command of the Russian aviation group in Syria had taken "the necessary measures to prevent similar incidents."

Russian aircraft began to carry out surgical air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria on September 30. The extremist group is banned in Russia.