Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan​ has been credited with talking a man out of jumping off a bridge in Istanbul, saving his life.

Mr Erdogan's office said the President talked Vezir Cakras out of taking his own life on Christmas Day. Television footage showed Mr Erdogan's motorcade stopping on Istanbul's Bosphorus Bridge where a man was apparently contemplating jumping off. An official from Mr Erdogan's office told The Associated Press Mr Cakras was depressed because of "family issues".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's bodyguards escort Vezir Cakras, centre, towards Mr Erdogan's car after they convinced him not to jump from the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul on Friday. Credit:AP

The news comes after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu​ on Thursday accused the head of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition party of treason for using a trip to Moscow to condemn Ankara's shooting down of a Russian warplane over Syria.

​Selahattin Demirtas, co-head of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday and criticised Ankara for shooting down the warplane near the border with Syria last month. Moscow denies it had entered Turkish airspace.