Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Warns Russian President Vladimir Putin Not To ‘Play With Fire’; ‘We Don’t Want These Relations To Suffer Harm In Any Way’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin not to "play with fire," referring to reports stating that Turkish businessmen had been restrained in Putin's country, as Turkey announced it will prevent visa-free travel with Turkey.

"It is playing with fire to go as far as mistreating our citizens who have gone to Russia," Ergodan says before his supporters in Bayburt, as noted by Reuters Friday. "We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia ... We don't want these relations to suffer harm in any way."

The Russian president also said he might talk to Putin during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Summit in Paris which is slated next week and "bring the issue to a reasonable point."

"We are disturbed that the issue has been escalated," Erdogan says.

The Guardian noted Friday that no meetings have been scheduled for Erdogan and Putin, as per Kremlin. It also verified that the Turkish president tried to reach Putin after the downing of a Russian plane, however, the call was not answered.

Erdogan said Turkish jets were not aware the Su-24 was a Russian plane, saying they would not do such an act if they only knew it was a Russian jet. On the other hand, Turkey thought the idea was doubtful.

"If we had known it was a Russian plane, maybe we would have warned it differently," Erdogan says.

Meanwhile, Russian defence ministry on Friday branded the incident as an "ambush" by Turkish planes, while Turkey is persistent that they have warned the Russian jet after it turned briefly into the airspace of Turkey.

According to Kremlin, Putin did not answer the call of Erdogan as the latter has yet to apologize on the downing of the Russian jet.