Istanbul, Jan 30 (EFE).– The Turkish government summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the latest violation of its airspace by a Russian fighter jet, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The incident took place Friday at 0946 GMT and involved an Su-34 fighter jet of the Russian air force, according to an official communique.

Shortly before, officials in charge of Turkish military radar had sent several warnings in Russian and English to the fighter aircraft, the statement said, without specifying at what point on the Turkish border the incident occurred.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Ankara to express its most energetic condemnation of the incident.

“We are making a clear call to the Russian Federation not to violate Turkish airspace, which is also NATO airspace,” the communique said.

“We are emphasizing once again that the unwanted consequences of such irresponsible behavior will belong fully to the Russian Federation,” the text said.

Meanwhile NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia “to act responsibly and to fully respect NATO airspace. Russia must take all necessary measures to ensure that such violations do not happen again.”

In response, Russian Defense Minister Igor Konashenkov called Turkey’s accusation of a Russian military aircraft violating Turkish airspace “pure propaganda.”

Last Nov. 24 the Turkish air force shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber flying a mission in northwest Syria, and which, according to Ankara’s version but denied by Moscow, briefly penetrated Turkish airspace.

This would be the first time that a Russian fighter jet violated Turkish airspace since the Russian bomber was shot down in November.

That attack, which left one of the two Russian pilots dead, has created great tension between the two governments, and since then Russia has imposed numerous sanctions on Turkey, particularly in the categories of tourism and trade. EFE