Davutoglu maintained that “honorable people of Turkey” expect respect from “honorable people of Russia”. It also slammed an array of economic sanctions on Turkey, including a ban on imports of fruit and vegetables and the sales of tourism packages.
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But Russia could deal a real blow by reducing gas supplies, a move broadly seen by analysts and Turkish officials as unlikely for now but which could seriously hurt the Turkish economy and for which Ankara is drawing up contingency plans.
Lavrov said his country’s aim is to ensure that the “overflow” of terrorist threats in Turkey don’t make their way into Russian Federation. He suggested for the first time, however, that the plane was brought down because Turkey could not “morally” allow the plane to trespass on Turkish territory before bombing areas in Syria where ethnic Turkish populations live.
Russian Federation has stepped up its pressure on Turkey, suspending the planned construction of a crucial gas pipeline between the two countries.
Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Thursday vowed never to forget Turkey’s downing of one of Moscow’s warplanes, as he lashed out once again at the leadership in Ankara over the incident.
Turkey neither intends to escalate the situation regarding the downing of the Russian warplane, nor would apologize to Russia for the incident, Davutoglu said at Azerbaijan’s ADA University here, pointing out that Russia’s accusations of Turkey stabbing Moscow in the back are groundless. According to reports, Russia will the freeze work on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project meant for transporting Russian gas to Europe, bypassing Ukraine.
A Russian parliament member, Vasily Likachev, told state news agency Tass that Moscow has sufficient evidence on oil sales to file a claim with the UN International Court of Justice. Some 35 percent of Turkey’s electricity needs are generated using natural gas, and 55 percent of that gas comes from Russian Federation. “In Turkey, that is 6 percent”, TEPAV researcher Aysegul Aytac wrote in a recent note.
In related news, Russian Federation says it has proof Turkey involved in Islamic State oil trade.
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“We gave our response to the claims that have been raised”, Cavusoglu said after the talks.
