Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemns Moscow as Nato says incursions into Turkish airspace do not appear to be accidental

A war of words has broken out between Russia and Nato over Moscow’s military intervention in Syria and its violation of Turkish airspace.

The row threatens to further escalate tensions over Moscow’s airstrikes to support the regime of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said his country could not endure Russian violations of its airspace in its campaign in Syria and said Russia risked “losing” Turkey.

“Nato has issued a stern ultimatum,” Erdoğan was quoted as saying at a press conference in Brussels by local media. “We cannot endure it. Some steps that we do not desire are being taken. It is not suitable for Turkey to accept them. This is also beyond the principles of Nato.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg. Photograph: Thierry Charlier/AFP/Getty Images

Nato’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, had said earlier on Tuesday that the Russian incursions into Turkish airspace did not appear to be an accident, because the incursions had happened twice and lasted for a long time.

On Monday, Turkey’s foreign ministry said the country had scrambled its fighter jets following a Russian plane’s incursion into its airspace. Separately, the armed forces said a Mig fighter plane had harassed a Turkish squadron of F-16s patrolling the border with Syria, locking its radar on the Turkish warplanes.

“I will not speculate on the motives … but this does not look like an accident, and we have seen two of them,” Stoltenberg was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The Russian ministry of defence said a SU-30 fighter plane briefly entered Turkish airspace by accident as a result of weather conditions and said its Syria Command had taken the necessary measures to prevent such an incident from reoccurring. It said it had also clarified the situation with its Turkish counterpart.

The Russian embassy in Ankara said the country’s envoy was summoned twice on Saturday and Monday to address the incursions, according to the Russian Tass news agency. But the embassy said it was not involved in the Mig plane incident and does not have such planes in its facilities in Syria.

But Russia appeared to walk back claims that it might send volunteer fighters to Syria to assist in ground operations, though the Kremlin said it would not prevent such individuals from aiding the Syrian government.

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Admiral Vladimir Komoedov, the chairman of the defence committee of Russia’s lower parliament, was quoted by Tass as saying that a ground operation in Syria was “out of the question”.

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian government was not involved in efforts by volunteers to travel to Syria to aid the Assad regime, hinting it would overlook such attempts.

“This issue is not on the agenda at all,” he was quoted as saying. “You are speaking about somebody who will be helping the legitimate government of the Syrian Arab Republic. This has nothing to do with the Kremlin’s agenda.”

Russia and Syrian state TV did not publicise any further airstrikes on Tuesday, after striking targets on Monday in Latakia, Idlib and Homs provinces. The areas are home to various disparate rebel groups, including the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s Syrian wing, and the Russian raids appear to be primarily targeting those rebels operating close to the embattled Syrian leader Assad’s coastal strongholds.

Russian airstrikes also appeared to target Islamic State (Isis) forces in eastern Homs, near the city of Palmyra. Syrian state TV said the attacks destroyed equipment, ammunition depots and rocket launch pads belonging to the militants in and around Palmyra.

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Moscow, however, angrily dismissed the reports as false, the TASS news agency reported. “All reports by foreign media that Russian planes allegedly struck the city of Palmyra are an absolute lie,” Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the defence ministry, was quoted as saying.

“Our planes in Syria do not strike populated areas and especially ones with architectural monuments.”

The historic city of Palmyra was seized by Isis in May after a week-long siege that drove out forces loyal to Assad. The terror group has since embarked on a campaign to destroy much of Palmyra’s ancient heritage and exquisitely-preserved monuments.

The group has attempted to expand its reach in eastern Homs, seizing gas plants and other strategic territory on the road to the city, which is controlled by the regime and which is seen as a key element of Assad’s hold on the country’s central and western population centres.





Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report