Turkey’s Foreign Ministry says it has summoned the Russian ambassador in Ankara to complain about protests against Turkish missions and businesses in Russia following Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet.
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And Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country does not wish to escalate tensions with Russian Federation and instead favours “peace, dialogue and diplomacy”.
His remarks came after Turkey released audio recordings of what it says are the Turkish military’s repeated warnings to the pilot before the jet was shot down.
He urged Islamic countries to stand together against Islamic State terror and not let terrorists to misuse Islam.
Recently chosen foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey would not apologise “on an occasion that we are right”, but revealed he had said “sorry” to Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister who cancelled a visit to Istanbul on Tuesday, a day before he was due to arrive.
He said he regretted the fact that relations between Turkey and Russian Federation have been driven into a stalemate.
The downing of the plane on the Syrian border has raised fears it could fuel a wider geopolitical conflict, and highlighted the difficulty of forging consensus on Syria as French President Francois Hollande held talks with Putin in Moscow.
Yesterday, Russian warplanes were back bombing the anti-Assad rebels near the Turkish border in an area where Islamic State has no known presence.
Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered his government to draw up measures that would include freezing some joint investment projects and restricting food imports from Turkey.
Russian Federation will “organise additional checks at the border and at food production sites in Turkey”, he said.
Both Turkish Stream and the nuclear plant could become part of a sanctions package, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukaev said Thursday. “We are strategic partners”, he said.
“You say you are fighting Daesh”.
The S-400 Triumf next generation surface-to-air missile systems has been deployed to the Hmeymim airbase in Syria where the Russian Aerospace Forces group is stationed.
“Faced with the same violation today, Turkey would give the same response”, Erdogan said.
But Mr Putin insisted it was “impossible” for Turkey not to have known it was shooting at a Russian plane. “We are saddened by this”, he said.
Erdogan said earlier on Thursday that Putin had refused to answer his call and insisted his country did not buy any oil from IS.
Putin on Thursday dismissed as “rubbish” Turkey’s claim that it would not have shot down the jet if it had known it was Russian. In September, Erdogan traveled to Moscow where he and Putin attended the opening of a new mosque, and they also met separately at the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit hosted by Turkey.
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“Russia would not be able to turn away from its commitments such as providing gas, but if there is no commitment, then it could stop everything”, he said.
