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Let no one expect us to remain silent about violation of Turkey's borders - Erdogan

25 November 2015 11:13 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Malahat Najafova - APA. "Let no one expect us to remain silent about violation of our borders,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the meeting of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) held in Istanbul.

Speaking of the downing of a Russian warplane on Tuesday, he reiterated that the Russian warplane had violated Turkish airspace.

"One of the planes flied back, while the other went on violating the border. It later became clear that the downed warplane was Russian. The UN and NATO were given necessary information in this regard. They claim to be fighting ISIL there, whereas there is no known ISIL presence in that area. Let no one fool another. We had been giving warnings for such an incident not to happen. And we had informed our neighbor through various channels of our sensitivity. We have always stated our peaceful stance. However, no one should expect us to remain silent about disturbance of our border security. Of course, we have no intention of escalating the incident. We are just defending our security and our brothers. A week ago, people began moving towards our borders from the north of Latakia – the area inhabited by BayÄ±r-Bucak Turkmens. We have begun to receive our compatriots, our relatives, fleeing the heavy bombardment and settle them in camps in Hatay. To prevent further waives of migration into our country, we will continue to take necessary measures and do our part to ensure the Syrian people’s stability and security,” said Erdogan.