Russia denies its aircraft in Syria violating Turkish airspace

The Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday denied Turkey's claims that a Russian aircraft violated Turkish airspace.

"There were no violations of Turkish airspace by planes of the Russian air group in the Syrian Arab Republic. The statements of the Turkish side about the alleged fact of violation by the Russian Su-34 is unfounded propaganda," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters.

Earlier in the day, the Turkish Foreign Ministry released an online statement saying that a Russian SU-34 aircraft violated Turkish airspace at 11:46 local time (0946 GMT) on Friday, and summoned Russian Ambassador to Ankara.

"We once again explicitly call on Russia, to act responsibly and not to violate Turkish Airspace, which is NATO airspace," the Turkish statement said. "We underline that such actions could lead to serious consequences, the responsibility of which will totally rest with the Russian Federation."

Ankara also said the Russian plane was warned numerous times by Turkish air radar units "through appropriate channels" both in English and Russian languages.

However the Russian Defense Ministry refuted such claim saying that none of Turkey's radars could establish the type and affiliation of the aircraft.

Neither Russian air defense systems in Syria nor Syrian radars found any airspace violations near Syrian-Turkish border, RIA Novosti news agency quoted Konashenkov as saying.

Turkey kept accusing Russia of airspace violations since Moscow started its airstrike mission against terrorist targets in Syria last September.

Russian-Turkish relations worsened after Ankara shot down a Russian aircraft which allegedly violated Turkish airspace last November.

Following the incident, Russia imposed sanctions against Turkey and suspended various contact channels. To raise its air defense capacity, Moscow also deployed S-400 missile defense system at the Hmeimim base of the Russian air force in Syria. Endit