Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Turkey did not want any escalation with Russia over its downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian frontier but vowed to always defend Turkish borders.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Turkey did not want any escalation with Russia over its downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian frontier but vowed to always defend Turkish borders.

"We have no intention to escalate this incident. We are just defending our security and the rights of our brothers," Erdogan said in a televised speech in Istanbul, adding that no one should expect Turkey "to remain silent" when its border security was violated.

Erdogan said that he shot down the Su-24 "simply" to defend Turkey's security and the "rights of our brothers" in Syria, in reference to the armed groups that are funded by Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to operate against the Syrian national forces.

Speaking at a business event in Istanbul, Erdogan claimed the jet had been fired at while in Turkish air space but had crashed inside Syria, although Russian officials denied the Turkish allegations, insisting that the fighter jet didn't cross to Ankara's airspace.

The shooting down of the Russian warplane in the Syria side of the borders with Turkey on Tuesday was one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the plane had been attacked when it was 1 km (0.62 mile) inside Syria and warned of "serious consequences" for what he termed a stab in the back administered by "the accomplices of terrorists".

Two Russian pilots got out of the drone before it hit the land. One of them was shot dead by terrorist gunmen, and the second is said to be picked up by Syrian army soldiers according to the Russian ambassador to France, Alexander Orlov.