Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim denied on Tuesday that his government apologized for shooting down a Russian warplane last year over Turkey’s border with Syria clarifying that his country only “expressed sadness over the incident.” The Prime Minister also said that an apology as well as compensation is currently “out of the question,” pointing out that the man, Alparslan Celik, suspected of shooting dead the Russian pilot Oleg Peshkov as he parachuted from his destroyed aircraft are still ongoing. On Monday he did, however, suggest that Turkey might indeed pay compensation to the Russians for the incident if it helped restore relations. “We will pay compensation if required and we want relations to return to normal. The essence of the matter is that. It is not a unilateral will but mutual,” he said late on Monday in an interview with Turkey’s TRT. Yildirim said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin will talk on the phone on either Wednesday or Thursday. In the letter to the Kremlin, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Erdogan said he was “sorry” for shooting down the Russian warplane, claiming Turkey “never had the desire and the intention” to shoot it down. He then conveyed his “sympathy and deep condolences” to the family of the dead pilot and “asked to be forgiven,” adding that he is prepared to do “everything possible” to restore relations. The aforementioned Alparslan Celik was released from prison the same day that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan officially apologized to Russia for that incident. On Monday the Izmir court ruled that Celik but banned him from leaving the country. He, and six others, were arrested in Izmir last March 31 for illegal possession of an assault rifle. Celik had been part of an armed group of Turkish nationals fighting the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad in that war-torn country’s northwest, after the shoot-down incident he sought to justify Turkey’s actions but later denied having played any role in shooting Peshkov to death after he parachuted from his bomber. The Izmir court had previously opted for a nonsuit on Celik’s case for “grievous provocation in the killing of the Russian pilot after evaluating reports of his testimony, interviews in the media and video footage,” but changed its mind on Friday after new evidence came to light which suggests that the pilots of Russian rescue helicopter were also targeted as they tried to land. The court consequently decided that, “Even though the suspect Alparlan Celik stated that he tried to calm the situation but the people around him didn’t follow his orders, the fact that fire was opened on the rescue helicopter steadily opens up the defense to be re-investigated.” Celik’s release from prison coincides with Erdogan’s official apology to Russia over the incident – which saw Moscow level sanctions against Ankara’s energy and tourism sectors. Russia had previously stated it would not restore ties with Turkey until and unless the Turkish government apologized for the shoot-down and paid reparations.
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