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Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia wants to resume its ties with Turkey and is waiting for specific steps from Ankara in this direction, but the Turkish side doesn’t make them, Izvestiya reports.

Commenting on the incident related to the downing of Russian Su-24 fighter jet, Putin informed that Russia is carrying out military campaign in Syria not against the regular army, but the terrorist groups. 

“We couldn’t even imagine that a Turkish fighter jet could attack our strike aircraft, which wasn’t protected from a fighter,” Putin said.  

He also added that Russia wasn’t going to fight with Turkey.

“Otherwise, we would act differently and by other means. I hope the things will never come to this,” the Russian President stressed.

According to Putin, the Russian side listened to the explanations of the Turkish authorities, but never heard any apologies. He noted that during decades Russia did its best to take the Russian-Turkish relations to an unprecedented level of partnership and friendship. Putin also noted that he doesn’t understand why Turkey destroyed that friendship.

“We listened to the explanations of the Turkish authorities, but never heard any apologies. And we never heard about the readiness to compensate for the damage.  We hear statements on the wish to resume [the ties]. We also want to resume them; we weren’t the ones who destroyed them. We did our best for decades to take the Russian-Turkish relations to an unprecedented level of partnership and friendship. And this friendship between the Russian and Turkish people indeed reached very high level. We valued this very much. It’s beyond me to understand why this was done,” the Russian President added.

“Moreover, not only the jet was downed, but the pilot, who was being catapulted, was shot down as well And under the international law, this is nothing but a war crime,” he stressed.

Putin also noted that besides the statements from the Turkish side on the wish to resume the Russian-Turkish relations, it is also necessary to do something.

“We keep in touch with the representatives of the Turkish side. They know our response. We are waiting for specific steps from their side. No such steps have been made yet,” he noted. 

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