Turkey PM defiant on Russia stance

Turkey’s prime minister struck a defiant tone in his nation’s growing spat with Russia, declaring that his country cannot be “brought to its knees” by Russian economic sanctions imposed in response to Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane.

In a speech during a visit to Baku, Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu again defended Turkey’s action and said Turkey won’t apologise for defending its borders.

Davutoglu insisted Turkey did not know the nationality of the plane it downed inside Turkish air space. He suggested for the first time, however, that the plane was brought down because Turkey could not “morally” allow the plane to trespass on Turkish territory before bombing areas in Syria where ethnic Turkish populations live.