Tension with Russia should not be reflected on the tourists to come to Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu stated.

The Turkish PM expressed concern that Russian tourists have stopped visiting Turkey due to the latter’s strained relations with Russia, according to Güneş daily newspaper of Armenia.

“You can’t change the people’s tastes, curiosities, the choices they make with a political decision,” Davutoğlu said. “Russian tourists came to Turkey, they loved, saw [it]. They saw Turkey as the most peaceful resort. Changing this trend with a political decision, using it as a political weapon through sanctions is useless for any power. Of course, we [i.e. the Turks] want the normalization, the bettering of Turkish-Russian relations, but this can’t be done unilaterally. We need to better host the guests of this country, so we can show the whole world how much of an open-hearted people we are.”

On November 24, 2015, the Turkish air force shot down a Russian Su-24 attack aircraft/interdictor nearby the Turkish-Syrian border. The warplane was taking part in the antiterrorism operations in Syria. This incident led to the ongoing strain in Turkey-Russia relations.