Alwaght- Russian lawmaker, Konstantin Kosachyov says Turkish President’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin was a letter of apology to normalize ties between Moscow and Ankara.
Chairman of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee on his Facebook page describes key messages of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s letter to Vladimir Putin as “firstly, words of apology, and secondly, the readiness for any initiative to relieve the pain and gravity of the loss suffered by the family of the killed pilot, Oleg Peshkov.”
Kosachyov added that although the letter was not read out in public but dispatched to Putin personally, it was an important step towards Russia, which confirmed that Russia’s stance was 100% right and proper, according to Russia-based Tass news agency.
"Neither military retaliation, which some politicians have been calling for, nor concessions and agreement to leave the incident unanswered," Kosachyov said.
He deems the economic response was most effective. Erdogan had certainly not expected Russia would be so resolute and the scale of its action, so large."
"Beaches in Turkey without Russians and construction sites in Russia without Turkish workers produced a far stronger impression than any military or political threats," Kosachyov said. "It is to be hoped that the first step towards overcoming the confrontation has been made. This is just the beginning, of course."
Senior Russian lawmaker said Russia besides the apologies will be expecting from Turkey changed approaches to Syria and Iraq.
"Clearly, disputes between Russia and Turkey are much deeper and they are of more systematic character than the recent tragedy, which of course shocked us all," he said. "They refer to reasons, to development and possible results of certain conflict situations now in Syria, in Iraq, in some other conflict areas."
"And here we would be expecting from Turkey a revision, so to say, of the approaches, the revision of the positions they have been following lately and which not only caused worse relations with Russia, but to direct degradation of the situation in those conflict areas via direct support for the terrorist structures which are acting in respective countries," the senator said.
"Thus, besides the words of sorrow and apology, which were in the letter, we of course will require also deeds which would prove changed Turkish approaches," he said.
Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin press service said Russian President Vladimir Putin has received a message from Turkey’s President Erdogan where the Turkish leader expressed his readiness to settle the situation over the downing of the Russian warplane.
Erdogan offered his deep condolences to the family of the killed Russian pilot. "I am saying, ‘I am sorry.’ I share your grief with all my heart. We consider the family of the Russian pilot as a Turkish family. We are ready for any initiative in the name of easing the pain and gravity of the damage we have done," the document says.
On November 24, 2015, a Turkish F-16 fired an air-to-air missile, slamming into a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber at the altitude of 6,000 meters and roughly one kilometer from Turkey’s border. Later, the Russian Defense Ministry specified the Su-24 was downed when it was returning to the Hmeymim airbase in Syria.
