Turkey: Problem not with Russia but Syria
Turkey has said it has no problem with Russia after grounding a Syrian plane en route from Moscow to Damascus last week, saying it was instead upset with Syria for violating international civilian aviation regulations.
The remarks came in swift response to Moscow’s statement that Turkey accepted that the cargo it seized did not consist of illegal weapons but was legitimate.
“What we say from the very beginning is that Syrians attempted to transport the cargo in an illegal way. This problem is not with Russia but with Syria,” a Turkish official told the Hürriyet Daily News.
The official also said the plane was forced to land after it was notified before it entered into Turkish airspace.
Turkey’s reaction came after the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed that Turkey acknowledged the legitimacy of the confiscated cargo.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had said the confiscated cargo included military equipment and radar components for a missile defense system which could not be transported on a civilian flight.