Turkey won't apologize; Russia wants pilot's killer arrested

Turkey won't apologize; Russia wants pilot's killer arrested

Those relations are important for Turkey, as well as for the region of the Balkans and Europe, Davutoglu added, according to TASS.

He repeated Turkey's claim that the Russia Su-24 that Turkey shot down had violated its airspace and said his country would not apologize for downing the bomber.

On Wednesday, Russia demanded from Turkey to arrest its citizen Alparslan Celik for the murder of the Su-24 pilot, who was killed by fire from the ground as he was parachuting.

"We demand that the Turkish authorities take immediate steps to apprehend Alparslan Celik and his accomplices and bring them to justice for the murder of the Russian pilot," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to AFP.

The agency said that Celik is a "Turkmen rebel and a citizen of Turkey" - and that he told Turkish newspaper Hurriyet "his conscience cannot be bothered by a person who threw bombs at Turkmen civilians every day."

"Revenge is the most natural right," Celik said in the interview, while refraining from claiming the pilot's death, AFP said.