The deadly incident was an "automatic response to the airspace violation," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech on Friday.

"Turkey did not deliberately [shoot] down the Russian warplane," he said.

Ankara says that the bomber entered Turkish airspace and ignored multiple warnings, while Moscow says that the Turkish forces fired at the aircraft above Syria, without warning.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ankara of a "planned provocation," and a "stab in the back."

Watch video 00:58 Russian warplane crashes after being shot down by Turkish jets

On Friday, Erdogan described Putin's criticism as "unacceptable" and asked Russia to prove its "grave and unfair" accusations.

Erdogan calling for a Paris meet

The Turkish president also blamed the Kremlin for backing the regime of "murderer" President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, likening this to "playing with fire."

Speaking to his supporters in northeast Turkey, Erdogan said he "would like to meet [Putin] face to face in Paris," during the upcoming climate meet.

"There is a summit in Paris, I believe he will also attend. We could sit and talk there," Erdogan said. "I would like to bring the issue to a reasonable point. We are disturbed that the issue has been escalated."

'Simply apologize'

The Kremlin has received Erdogan's request, said Putin's spokesman Dmitri Peskov. However, Peskov did not clarify whether Moscow had accepted or refused the offer.

Russia's importance for Turkey's economy Tourism Moscow has warned Russians against visiting Turkey, saying the threat of terrorism there was no less than in Egypt, where a bomb attack brought down a Russian passenger plane last month. Each year millions of Russian tourists spend their holidays in Turkey's seaside resorts. Some of them like the Kremlin Palace Hotel in Antalya are tailor-made for Russian guests.

Russia's importance for Turkey's economy Trade Turkish food exports so far have not been affected by Moscow's ban on most Western food imports. In 2014, about 4 percent of Turkish exports, mainly textiles and food, worth $6 billion (5.63 billion euros) went to Russia. In the first three quarters of 2015, however, overall exports to Russia slumped by 40 percent to $2.7 billion (2.53 euros)

Russia's importance for Turkey's economy Energy Turkey is the second-largest buyer of Russian natural gas after Germany. Ankara is importing 28-30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of its 50 bcm of natural gas needs annually from gas giant Gazprom. Russia also supplies oil and oil products to Turkey.

Russia's importance for Turkey's economy Wheat and steel Turkey together with Egypt is the largest buyer of Russian wheat. It bought 4.1 million tons of Russian wheat in the previous marketing year that ended in June. In addition, Ankara relies strongly on imports of Russian steel and semi-finished metallurgical products.

Russia's importance for Turkey's economy Projects Turkey commissioned Russia's state-owned Rosatom in 2013 to build four 1,200-megawatt nuclear reactors in a project worth $20 billion (18.79 billion euros). Russia and Turkey also have teamed up for the TurkStream pipeline Project, an alternative to Russia's South Stream pipeline to transport gas to Europe without crossing Ukraine. tko/hg (Reuters)



"The president has been told about this request... That's all I can say," he told reporters.

Putin had refused Erdogan's earlier attempts at contact, because Turkey was not ready to apologize, according to Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov.

"We see Turkey's unwillingness to simply apologize for the incident with the plane," Ushakov told reporters.

Also on Friday, the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said that Moscow has decided to suspend visa-free travel with Turkey, in addition to economic retaliatory measures.

Ankara "risks putting Turkey in a most severe situation, with respect to both its long-term national interests and the situation in the region," according to Lavrov.

"We believe that the Turkish leadership has crossed the line of what is acceptable," he said.

Assad and 'IS' to profit

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called for unity against the "Islamic State" and argued that the shooting of the plane was not directed at Russia.

"The downing of an unidentified jet in Turkish airspace was not - and is not - an act against a specific country," he wrote in an article published in the Friday edition of The Times of London.

"The international community must not turn on itself. Otherwise the only victors will be Daesh... and the Syrian regime," he said, using an Arabic term for IS jihadists.

dj/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)