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Turkey says its patience with Russia ‘has a limit’

The incident happened after Turkey last month downed a Russian bomber at the Syrian border, leading to the biggest crisis in ties between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.

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Turkey is running out of patience after a Russian destroyer fired warning shots against Turkish fishing boats to avoid a collision Sunday.

Cavusoglu said Russian Federation had already “put itself in a ridiculous position” with accusations by President Vladimir Putin that Turkey had shot down the jet to protect oil supplies from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

After the incident, Russia summoned a Turkish military attaché to warn of “potentially disastrous consequences from Ankara’s reckless actions toward Russia’s military contingent fighting against worldwide terrorism in Syria”, according to a Russian Defense Ministry statement. The Russian President recently stated that Russia is “planning to engage in military saber-rattling with Turkey”.

The captain of the Turkish fishing boat that the Russian Navy claims to have fired warning shots towards has denied that his ship received such a caution.

While the Kremlin says airstrikes target the Daesh militant group, some members of the western North Atlantic Treaty Organisation alliance believe Russian Federation is targeting groups opposed to Assad, including some that enjoy US and Turkish support.

The foreign ministries of both sides have said that yes, but at least for the time being this incident is likely going to fuel tensions.

Thus, the decree imposed visa travel from January 1, 2016, banned charter flights between Russia and Turkey and bound Russian travel operators not to sell travel packages to Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday said in an interview with Italian media that his country would like good relations with Russian Federation, but there was a limit to Turkey’s patience. “We have always been in favor of overcoming tensions through dialogue rather than conflict”, he said, AFP reports, citing Dogan.

Then on Monday, a Russian corvette and coast guard boat forced a Turkish commercial ship in the Black Sea to change course because it was in the way of a Russian oil-rig towing boat.

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Russia’s bombing campaign that began September 30 against Islamic State and other militant groups in Syria has reinforced Assad.

The Smetlivy seen in Grand Harbour three years ago