Turkey warns Russia they 'face consequences' after fresh airspace violations

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has once again accused Russia of violating the nation's airspace and has now warned of "consequences" if it happens again. The relationship between the two nations has been tense since Turkey shot down a Russian jet in November, and now Nato have asked Russia to respect their member state's territory.

Ankara claimed, on that occasion, that the jet had travelled into its airspace and had ignored previous warnings but Russia claims it was just flying on the edge of its territory and the action was unwarranted. Russia has been carrying out air strikes and reconnaissance in Syria since September, in an effort to dismantle forces fighting the government of their ally - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Turkish foreign ministry said that once again a Russian jet flew into its airspace, near its border with war-ravaged Syria on Friday 29 January. They claim a Russian SU-34 jet crossed into Turkish airspace at 11:46 local time and ignored warnings in Russian and English

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the next day that Russia would "have to face consequences if it keeps up such violations", according to the BBC. Erdogan added that: "Such irresponsible steps do not benefit either the Russian Federation, or Russia-Nato relations, or regional and global peace."

Erdogan has now taken steps to summon the Russian ambassador in Ankara so they can "strongly protest at and condemn". He mentioned failed attempts to contact Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But, predictably, military spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies, that no such breach took place. "The Turkish declarations concerning the alleged violation of its airspace by a Russian Su-34 are baseless propaganda," he declared.

Turkey is a member of Nato and on Saturday they urged Russia "respect Nato airspace" and take all necessary measures to ensure that "such violations do not happen again".

"We are making a clear call to the Russian Federation not to violate Turkish airspace, which is also NATO airspace," the statement said. "We stress once again that all the responsibility for any unwanted grave consequences as a result of any such irresponsible behaviour will belong entirely to the Russian Federation."