Two Months after Turkish F-16s downed a Russian jet for violating its territory from Syria: Russia says Kurds have right to participate in Syrian talks – Russian diplomat

The Syrian Kurds are citizens of Syria and they have the right to participate in the inter-Syrian negotiations, Russia’s Ambassador to the UN office in Geneva Alexei Borodavkin twitted on Saturday.

“Syrian Kurds are citizens of Syria, ” he wrote. “They have the right to participate in discussing future of their country.”

On January 27, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted “the range of people invited (to take part in the inter-Syrian talks) must be inclusive, as envisaged by a UN resolution, and should represent the widest possible array of opposition groups, “including the Syrian Kurds who make up about 15 percent of Syria’s population.

“We have been recently hearing doubts of a separate, I would say, one member of the International Syria Support Group on whether the Syrian Kurds, specifically, the Democratic Union Party, should be invited at all. I believe that without this party, without this participant the talks cannot bear the fruit we seek, that is, the final political settlement in Syria, ” he said. (TASS)

Turkey said a Russian warplane breached its airspace despite repeated warnings, accusing Moscow of seeking to escalate tensions and warning of consequences

“A Su-34 plane belonging to the Russian Federation air force violated Turkish airspace at 11:46 local time yesterday (Friday), ” the Turkish foreign ministry said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Russia would “face consequences if it continues such violations”. Its statement said the Russian ambassador had been summoned to “strongly protest at and condemn” the incident.

Tensions have been high between Ankara and Moscow since Turkey shot down a Russian plane which violated its airspace near Syria in November.

Russia has been carrying out air strikes in Syria to support government troops near the Turkish border.