Russia refutes Turkey's allegation of airspace violation
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E-mail Xinhua, February 2, 2016
Russian Defense Ministry on Monday refuted Turkey's allegations claiming Russian aircraft had violated Turkish airspace.
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![Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual press conference in Moscow on December 17, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20160202/b8aeed990a58181a56d00c.jpg "Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual press conference in Moscow on December 17, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]") |
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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual press conference in Moscow on December 17, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua] |
"The hysteria of the Turkish party was not just an unsubstantiated propaganda but also had distinct signs of a planned provocation," the ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in an online statement.
No actual data were provided by the Turkish side to prove the allegation, the Russian spokesman insisted.
Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Russian ambassador to Turkey late Friday and protested against the violation of Turkey's airspace by a Russian SU-34.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday warned Russia of "consequences" if it continues to violate Turkish airspace, while expressing his hope to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin over the issue.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday confirmed Putin was informed of Erdogan's proposal, but didn't reveal how the Russian leader reacted to the proposal.
Russian Defense Ministry urged Turkey to provide factual evidence concerning Russian aircraft's violation of Turkish airspace.
"Ankara presented no evidence about region, altitude, heading and speed of the aircraft," said Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Konashenkov. "We thoroughly studied in the past 24 hours all objective control data on flights over northern Syria ... No violations of the Syrian-Turkish border by Russian warplanes have been registered."
According to the spokesman, the Russian aircraft currently carries out airstrike missions under cover of Russian and Syrian fighters, as well as modern air defense complexes including S-400 missile defense system.
Meanwhile, the Russian ministry presented videos allegedly showing strikes from Turkish border posts against populated areas in Syria.
According to Konashenkov, the footage, given by Syrian General Staff, proved the deployment of large-caliber, self-propelled artillery at a Turkish border post.
Syria's moderate opposition also gave the Russian side video showing Ankara targeted Syrian territory, including settlements near the border.
"This is undeniable proof that the Turkish armed forces carry out shelling against Syrian border settlements from large-caliber artillery systems," Konashenkov said.
Russian mission in Syria carried out 468 sorties and destroyed 1,354 terrorist targets last week, according to him.
Over 200 metric tons of humanitarian aid provisions and medication were delivered by Russian air forces in January to the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor besieged by the Daesh terrorist group, also known as Islamic State, Konashenkov added.
Russia started airstrike mission in Syria since last September at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with Russian aircraft deployed at Syria's Hmeimim airbase.
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