Moscow says its warplanes have been targeting terrorist groups near Syria’s border with Turkey, while Ankara says the Russian airstrikes have been aimed at moderate militant groups made of ethnic Turks who oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Advertisement
Russian Federation claims Turkey shot down its plane to protect what President Vladimir Putin has described as Turkish profiteering from the IS oil trade.
The crisis between Russia and Turkey erupted last month, after the Turkish army downed a Russian Sukhoi 24 allegedly over Turkish territory.
Turkey has refused to apologize for the incident, while Russian Federation has blocked sales of tourism packages to Turkey, imposed sanctions on Turkish fruits and vegetables, and accused Turkey of buying oil from the Islamic State.
Despite Thursday’s announcement, Russian Federation has not completely closed the door for Turkey over the pipeline.
Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that talks with Turkey on building a pipeline that would allow Russia to export natural gas to the European Union through Turkey have been halted.
“In the long-term, Turkey needs to cut its dependence on Russian gas below 30 percent, from 55 percent now, and it also needs to speed up work on getting Kurdish gas”, Mehmet Ogutcu, chairman of London-based energy advisory firm Global Resources Partnership, said by phone on Wednesday. In accordance with the decree, Russian tour companies and travel agents are to refrain from selling tours to Turkey.
The two countries have been trading accusations since Turkey downed the Russian fighter jet on November 24.
“We are convinced that there are real prospects for a peaceful solution”, he said.
Mr Davutoglu said the sanctions would be detrimental to both sides.
“If Russia cuts gas, it would effectively be shutting down the Marmara region and that would seriously hurt Turkey”, he said, adding he did not expect Moscow to take such a step as it would break a “contractual obligation”. “Turkey has 2 million refugees on whom it has spent $8 billion to date”, Davutoglu said.
It was the first time a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member’s armed forces have downed a Russian or Soviet military aircraft since the 1950s and Russian and Turkish assets fell on fears of an escalation between the former Cold War enemies.
Advertisement
The head of Russia’s state gas giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, told journalists earlier Thursday that Turkey would have to ask Russian Federation to renew talks on TurkStream. The only issue we will not discuss is the state border and sovereign rights of the Republic of Turkey.
