The Russian landing ship Caesar Kunikov did not violate a single article of the 1936 Montreux Convention on freedom of passage and navigation in the Turkish Straits while making a south-bound passage through Bosporus on December 4, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
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Russia has rejected Turkey’s criticism after a sailor on a Russian naval ship allegedly brandished a missile launcher as the vessel passed through Istanbul. It condemned Turkey’s decision to deport the journalists.
Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Bilgic confirmed the telephone conversation between the two presidents and said any attempts to distort its content were “not only immoral but also equal to hiding the truth from neighboring Iranian people”.
On Monday, the press crew of the TV program “Special Correspondent”, headed by Alexander Buzaladze, were detained in southeastern Turkey by authorities in civilian clothes. Turkey’s private NTV channel broadcast pictures of what it said was a Russian serviceman aboard the “Caesar Kunikov” with a type of rocket or missile launcher on his shoulder in the firing position.
The lack of a clear explanation, forces the Ministry to speculate that the journalistic investigation might have uncovered something which Turkey would rather not share with the world in light of Turkish-Russian tensions following the shooting down of the Russian Su-24 bomber last month.
Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Mehmed Simsek, said Monday that the Turkish economy stands to lose US$9 billion due to such sanctions although he hopes to de-escalate the conflict with Russian Federation.
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Turkish Armed Forces’ tank battalion deployed in the Iraqi province of Nineveh tasked to prepare Kurdish Peshmerga military forces to fight the IS in the framework of an agreement with the Iraqi authorities.
