Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu is accusing Russia of using bombing raids in the supposed effort to fight the Islamic State in Syria as an attempt to drive ethnic Turkmen and Sunni Arabs, considered to be rebels against the Syrian region led by Bashar al-Assad, out of the area.

According to The Telegraph, Mr. Davutoglu, while speaking to reporters at a briefing stated, “Russia is trying to make ethnic cleansing in northern Latakia to force (out) all Turkmen and Sunni populations who do not have good relations with the regime. They want to expel them, they want to ethnically cleanse this area so that the regime and Russian bases in Latakia and Tartus are protected.”

Relations between Turkey and Moscow have been tense and heated since a Russian warplane was shot down last month on the Syrian border. The BBC reported UK specialists have been asked to help analyze the flight recorder by Vladimir Putin in a direct request to Prime Minister David Cameron. Turkey maintains the act was justified and that the Russian bomber had been repeatedly warned that it was in Syrian airspace.

Ethnic Turkmen were reportedly the ones allegedly being targeted by the Russian fighter. Turkmen also have claimed to be the group that shot at and killed one of the pilots.

According to Reuters, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that accusations of ethnic cleansing in Syria are “groundless.”