Turkey’s decision to down a Russian Su-24 attack aircraft was an attempt to drag its NATO allies in a large-scale war with Russia over Syria, President Tomislav Nikolic told Sputnik Serbia on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In November, a Turkish F-16 fighter shot down a Russian Su-24 in Syria with an air-to-air missile fired from Turkish airspace as the Russian plane flew close to the Syrian-Turkish border.

Ankara claims the warplane violated its airspace, however, both the Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command have confirmed that the Russian jet never crossed into Turkish airspace.

“This was an attempt to get two powers involved in one big military conflict over Syria,” Nikolic said, adding that what was happening in Syria was a “clash of concepts.”

The Serbian leader asserted that the Syrian people must be free to elect their government in a fair election, rather than have it brought to power through foreign interference. He added that the question of President Bashar Assad’s role in Syria’s future was at the core of the dispute.