Erdogan warns Putin not to play with fire, but wants to meet him

The war of words between the Turkish and Russian rulers escalated sharply Friday over the downing by Turkey of a Russian warplane. In a TV speech, But Tayyip Erdogan accompanied his warning to Vladimir Putin with the hope that they meet at the climate conference in Paris next week. Putin demands that Ankara apologize first for the plane incident.

On Thursday, the Russian leader said at a press conference with visiting French President Francois Hollande: "The American side, which leads the coalition that Turkey belongs to, knew about the location and time of our planes' flights, and we were hit exactly there and at that time," Putin alleged. “Incidents like the destruction of our aircraft and the deaths of our servicemen… are absolutely unacceptable," he went on to say.  "And we proceed from the position that there will be no repeat of this, otherwise we'll have no need of cooperation with anybody, any coalition, any country."