The Turkish strongman accused Moscow of “slander” and has rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands to apologize over the plane incident, saying that Turkey was acting well within its rights to protect its border.
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On Wednesday, Lavrov said that Cavusoglu was insisting on holding talks on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Belgrade starting from Thursday, adding that he would not be evading this contact.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday, December 3, after meeting his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Belgrade that he had heard nothing new from Cavusoglu about the downing of a Russian plane by a Turkish military jet, Reuters reports. Russian Federation has responded by deploying long-range air defense missiles at its air base in Syria and slamming Turkey with an array of economic sanctions.
He added that Russian operations in Syria “hinder Turkey’s efforts to clean up its border with Syria of Islamic State fighters”. “Our hope is that they will give up their baseless claims”.
Erdogan has pledged to step down if Moscow proves its accusations. “We are exploring how we can offset this”, a Turkish energy official said.
“There is also the uncertainty regarding Turkey and Russia, which could disrupt Azov Sea shipments and which is pushing down Russian prices. Turkey has 2 million refugees on whom it has spent $8 billion to date”, Davutoglu said. “I believe our colleagues, our Turkish neighbours, should understand themselves what they must do”, he said, without elaborating.
Speaking in Baku, Davutoglu said Turkey and Azerbaijan had agreed to complete the project before the original target date of mid-2018.
Ditching the pipeline project is likely to impact both sides. The militants shot and killed the downed plane’s pilot while he was descending on parachute and also killed a Russian marine involved in rescuing the plane’s co-pilot.
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The US naval command says it is part of ongoing attempts to enhance regional stability and is meant to show support for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member states.
