Confrontation grows between Moscow and Ankara, as Turkey refuses to apologize for shooting down a Russian Su-24 bomber jet on its border with Syria on Tuesday.
30 November 2015
The Russian government may increase the number of banned Turkish goods and impose other restrictive measures, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
“I point out once again that these are our retaliatory and forced actions, which we are taking just to ensure security of our people and to react on the aggressive Turkish behavior. That is our response to these unfriendly actions [of Turkey],” he said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Ankara is ready for open discussion with Moscow about the incident with the downed Russian plane. It is also ready to provide Russia with all technical details of the incident. He also said Turkey would not apologize for the incident.
“Border defense is not just a Turkish right, it is a duty of the state I head. This is one of the key responsibilities of the government. That is why nobody should wait for our apologies for defense of our airspace,” the PM said after the meeting with the NATO General-Secretary Jens Stoltenberg.
Russia was informed about the principles of Turkish airspace defense three times before the incident, Davutoglu added.
27 November 2015
Russia will press for including the militant group responsible for killing the pilot of the downed Russian bomber in the official list of terrorist groups, which is due to be compiled by the International Syria Support Group and later approved by the UN Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
The militants that killed a Russian marine during the rescue operation to save the other pilot should also be added to that list, Lavrov added.
Lavrov also accused Turkey of “establishing a flow of militants in different directions” and refusing to share info on Russian citizens in Turkey suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.
“This year, Russia requested information about its citizens detained in Turkey on suspicion of terrorist activities. And all requests went without response,” the Russian foreign minister said.
Russia has decided to suspend visa-free travel with Turkey from January 1, 2016, in response to the recent downing of Russia’s Su-24 bomber by the Turkish Air Force, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced during a press conference after talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Moscow.
“We have decided to suspend the visa-free regime between Russia and Turkey. This decision will come into force on January 1,” the minister said.
Russia’s top diplomat said suspending visa-free travel between Russia and Turkey was “not an empty threat but a real warning."
26 November 2015
Russia's defense ministry has posted a video of its sophisticated S-400 SAM going on patrol at its airbase, near Latakia. With a 250 km range, it will cover the flight paths of most Russian planes operating in Syria.
Vladimir Putin says Russia would have deployed its S-400 anti-aircraft defense systems "a long time ago" if it realized its planes were under threat.
"It didn't enter our heads that we could be attacked by a country we considered our ally," the Russian president said after talks with his French counterpart Francois Hollande in Moscow.
The Russian Defense Ministry has said that all channels of military cooperation with Turkey were suspended on Thursday, including a hotline set up to share information about Russian air strikes in Syria. Moscow has also recalled its military representative from Turkey.
“Today, in accordance with the decision taken earlier, all channels of cooperation between the Russian Defense Ministry and the armed forces of Turkey were suspended,” said ministry spokesman General-Major Igor Konashenkov.
Russia's foreign ministry representative Maria Zakharova has derided the audio recording in which Turkish ground control purportedly warns Russia's plane that it will cross the border as a fake.
"The internet is full of recordings, some very interesting, others very funny... How long did it take to edit together this masterpiece? Several days? Well, it's value is clear now," the official said during a press briefing in Moscow.
In a public speech to regional heads in Ankara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has officially denied that Turkey buys oil off Islamic State, instead saying the Islamists sell the resources they have captured in Iraq and Syria to Bashar Assad.
Erdogan was responding to an accusation Vladimir Putin made in an earlier speech.
Russian foreign ministry representative Maria Zakharova says that NATO has given "Turkey a license to break the law" by backing up Ankara's version of events, during its meeting on Wednesday.
Zakharova has also urged Turkey to officially deny it has any links with Islamists fighting against the government of Bashar Assad in Syria.
Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have exchanged angry words over Turkey's lack of apology over the downing.
"We still haven't heard any apologies from the leadership of Turkey, nor have we heard any proposal to compensate damages or to hold those responsible for this heinous crimes to account," said Vladimir Putin during an official address in Moscow.
"I think if there is a party that needs to apologize, it is not us," Erdogan told CNN in Ankara. "Those who violated our airspace are the ones who need to apologize."
The head of Russia's tourism agency, Oleg Safonov, said that co-operation with Turkey in this area will "obviously" cease in response to the downing of the Russian Su-24. The agency has already instructed tour operators to stop selling travel packages, and Safonov estimates that Turkey's hospitality industry will suffer losses of $10 billion a year from the move.
Turkey is the top foreign destination for Russian tourists, above Egypt, which has also recently been closed due to the explosion of the Russian passenger in Sinai jet last month. Safonov predicted that Russians will take 40 percent fewer foreign trips next year.
Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu says Ankara has no plans to apologize to Russia over the Su-24 downing.
"There is no reason for us to apologize in a situation in which we are in the right. We have already expressed our condolences to Moscow," the official said during a trip to Northern Cyprus.
Russia’s prime minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered for a freeze of economic relations with Turkey, and said the government is preparing to impose “indefinite” across-the-board sanctions.
“The length of these sanctions will depend on the international situation, on questions of security, and more generally, on our relationship with Ankara,” said Medvedev.
25 November 2015
Turkey's military said on Wednesday it invited Russian military attaches to its headquarters and explained that Ankara shot down a Russian fighter jet because its rules of engagement went into effect after the plane did not respond to warnings.
In a written statement, the Turkish armed forces said it had made great efforts to find and rescue the pilots of the plane and that it had also called military authorities in Moscow and expressed readiness for "all kinds of cooperation". (Reuters)
US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with his Russian counterpart on Wednesday to urge for calm and dialogue between Turkey and Russia after Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane at the Syrian border. In a telephone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Kerry "also stressed the need for both sides not to allow this incident to escalate tensions between their two countries or in Syria," the State Department said in a statement. (Reuters)
In its assessment of the downing of a Russian jet by Turkey, NATO has “once again failed the exam on objectivity,” Aleksandr Grushko, Russia's permanent representative to NATO, said.
“We saw what we’ve seen too often in recent years: everything that NATO countries do is right and can somehow be understood [and] justified; NATO believes that [it] is the supreme judge in all matters of security," Grushko told TV channel Rossiya 1.
Syrian Kurds are ready to start cooperation with Russia to combat terrorism in the country, Salih Muslim Muhammad, the leader of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said.
“Until now we haven’t had the opportunity to establish cooperation with Russia. But we would be happy if such opportunity appears. Russia hasn’t yet approached our region as it is active in the West. I think in the future we’ll be able to establish a dialogue on military cooperation with the Russian side," he told Sputnik.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has declined “numerous offers to meet" with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, as the two officials talked on the phone on Wednesday, Maria Zakharova, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told Interfax.
Germany has expressed concern over the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey near the border with Syria, urging Moscow and Ankara to do everything in their power to avoid a further escalation of tensions between the two countries.
"We call on Ankara and Moscow to do everything possible to avoid a further escalation," government spokesman Steffen Seibert said, as cited by Reuters.
FOX TV (Turkey) has aired what it called an audio clip of a warning given by Turkish F-16 jets to the pilots of the Russian Su-24s before the incident on Tuesday morning.
“You are approaching Turkish air space. Change your heading south immediately,” the voice in the tape said in English.
The audio, whose authenticity couldn’t be verified, was accompanied by archive footage of Russian warplanes.
The downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey in Syria appears to be a preplanned provocation, the Russian foreign minister said. Ankara failed to communicate with Russia over the incident, he added.
Turkey's foreign ministry, however, did not say if the Su-24 fell victim to a coordinated attack.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has received a phone call from his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, who expressed his condolences for the two pilots of the Su-24 downed by the Turkish Air Force.
The pilot of the Su-24 who was killed in the incident will be awarded a posthumous Hero of the Russian Federation award, the highest honorary title in Russia, Vladimir Putin said. The second pilot rescued by Russian and Syrian special forces will also receive a medal, Putin added.
After the incident with Su-24 bomber, Russia is doing the right thing by warning its people about the dangers of traveling to Turkey, Vladimir Putin said.
Putin says Turkey’s leaders are intentionally supporting Turkey's Islamization.
“The problem is not in the tragedy we faced yesterday, the problem is much deeper. We observe - and not only we, the whole world sees it – that the current Turkish authorities are conducting domestic policy to support the Islamization of the country,” he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that everything must be done to avoid an escalation between Russia and Turkey.
Erdogan says the Turkish Air Force didn’t know the plane was Russian when it attacked.
The Turkish ambassador to Russia has been spoken to harshly following the downing of the Su-24 bomber, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has also urged all parties to "show restraint" after Turkey shot down a Russian bomber.
"We are concerned about the incident where a Russian aircraft was shot down in the Syrian-Turkish border area, and we ask relevant parties to exercise restraint," she said in a statement.
President Barack Obama and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan have held a telephone conversation in which the US leader expressed "US and NATO support for Turkey's right to defend its sovereignty," the White House said in a statement.
"The leaders agreed on the importance of de-escalating the situation and pursuing arrangements to ensure that such incidents do not happen again," the brief statement said.
The United States believes that the Russian jet shot down by Turkey on Tuesday was hit inside Syrian airspace after a brief incursion into Turkish airspace, a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said that assessment was based on detection of the heat signature of the jet.
24 November 2015
The US-led coalition registered the Turkish warnings to the Russian bomber which was downed by Turkey’s air forces, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said at the news briefing.
Several hundred people have staged a rally in front of the Turkish embassy in the Russian capital as Muscovites condemned the downing of a Russian jet by the Turkish forces.
The demonstrators displayed signs reading “forget about Russian tourists,” “Turkey is an ISIS ally,” “A stab in the back” among others.
The crowd called for the Turkish ambassador to come out and explain the incident, but their calls were ignored.
German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel called Turkish actions unpredictable.
“This incident shows for the first time that we are to dealing with an actor who is unpredictable according to statements from various parts of the region – that is not Russia, that is Turkey,” Gabriel said, as cited by DPA news agency. He added that Turkey was playing “a complicated role” in the Syrian conflict.
According to preliminary data, one Su-24 pilot was killed in the air by fire from the ground, the Russian General Staff reported. The search and rescue operation is ongoing, according to the military body.
Turkish President Erdogan said that the downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber was fully in line with Turkey’s rules of engagement. He also added that no one should doubt that Turkey makes all possible efforts to prevent incidents on the Syrian border.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the alliance backs Ankara, which shot down a Russian military jet.
"We stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the territorial integrity of our NATO ally," Stoltenberg said at a presser.
There has been contact between Moscow and Ankara over the downing of the Russian plane, but there has been no such contact between Moscow and NATO so far, Staltenberg added. He has called on both sides to intensify contacts and develop methods of avoiding similar incidents in the future.
Acts of aggression would only strengthen Syria’s determination to fight terrorist groups with support from Russia, the Syrian General Staff said after the downing of the Russian bomber near the Turkish border.
“Reckless acts of aggression will only strengthen our determination to continue the fight against terrorists with the assistance of our friends, especially Russia,” Syrian state agency SANA reported, citing a statement from the General Staff.
The two Russian pilots of the downed Su-24 warplane are still alive and Turkey is working to secure their release from Syrian rebels, a Turkish government official told Reuters.
“Our units, who received the information that the two pilots were alive, are working to get them from opposition rebels safely,” he stressed.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed “anger and frustration” over the “unpredictable actions of Turkey” as it downed the Russian Su-24 on Tuesday.
These actions are “completely inexplicable,” he said. He stressed that according to Russian military intelligence, the Su-24 jet was downed in Syrian airspace.
"In this case it is certainly important to hear some reaction from Western countries and NATO regarding such actions.”
He added that the downing of the Russian warplane will not affect the counter-terrorist operations of Russian air forces.
Russian state tourism agency Rostourism has recommended suspending sales of tour packages to Turkey. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed out the increasing level of the terror threat in Turkey, which is “not lower than in Egypt.” Lavrov said the ministry recommends Russians to refrain from visiting Turkey.
Whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks has published Turkey’s letter to the UN Security Council after the downing of the Russian plane on Tuesday. In the letter, Ankara claimed that the plane was warned “ten times during 5 minutes” to change its route while approaching Turkish airspace.
Meanwhile, Moscow has stated that the Russian SU-24 jet never violated Turkish airspace.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has urged direct communications between Russia and Turkey over the downed Russian Su-24 bomber to avoid further escalation.
“The prime minister strongly encouraged Prime Minister Davutoglu to make sure that there was direct communication between the Turks and the Russians on this,” Cameron’s spokeswoman told reporters.
The Russian Defense Ministry has issued a formal protest to the Turkish military attaché over the downing of a Russian war jet by Turkish air forces.
“The Russian Defense Ministry immediately summoned the military attaché of the Turkish Republic and issued a formal protest concerning the actions of the Turkish air forces,” the ministry’s press service said.
Russia regards the actions of the Turkish air forces as an “unfriendly act,” the ministry adds.
The Russian warplane did not cross the Turkish border and targeted objects solely on Syrian territory, striking terrorist groups, the Ministry of Defense says, adding that its attempts to contact the Turkish side via emergency communication channels have failed.
The US military said it couldn’t offer a precise location where the Russian jet was downed by Turkey, only saying that it happened "at the border" between Syria and Turkey.
When asked to confirm Turkish accounts that the Russian plane was warned ten times before being engaged, Steve Warren, a spokesman for the US-led military campaign against Islamic State, said: "I can confirm that. Yes."
However, he didn’t specify whether the US knew this independently, or if it was relying on Turkish accounts.
Despite Turkey being a NATO member, the US military spokesman said the downing of the Russian warplane is an issue to be settled between Ankara and Moscow.
"This is an incident between the Russian and the Turkish governments. It is not an issue that involves the [US-led coalition operations]. Our combat operations against ISIL (IS, ISIS) continue as planned and we are striking in both Iraq and Syria," Steve Warren, spokesman for the US-led Combined Joint Task Force, is cited as saying by Reuters.
Turkey has informed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the five members of the UN Security Council in writing over the downing of the Russian warplane, Turkish diplomatic sources told Reuters.
Turkey's deputy undersecretary has already met with the charge d'affairs of Russia, the US and Britain as well as the French ambassador to the country, stressing that the Su-24 was attacked after it repeatedly violated Turkish air space.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed hope that Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane wouldn’t hamper talks on solving the Syrian civil war.
"What we must hope for is that this occurrence will not deal a setback to the encouraging first talks, which offer a small hope of de-escalating the Syrian conflict," said Steinmeier as cited by Reuters.
The rebel group, which claims to have shot dead one of the Russian pilots after they ejected from their Su-24, announced the conditions for releasing his body.
Jahed Ahmad of the 10th Brigade in the Coast, a group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, told AP that the body will be exchanged for prisoners held by the Syrian government.
According to Ahmad, the group is now conducting a search operation in the area to find the second Russian pilot.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will chair a security meeting later on Tuesday to discuss the incident involving the downed Russian Su-24 bomber. The meeting will also be attended by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the head of the armed forces General Hulusi Akar, the head of the MIT national intelligence agency Hakan Fidan and some ministers, Reuters reports citing presidential sources.
The Turkish foreign minister has summoned the representatives of the five UN Security Council permanent members – China, France, Germany, Russia and the US - to brief them on the incident involving the downed Russian Su-24 bomber.
The Russian Su-24 was downed while returning to the Khmeimim airbase, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.
“A Russian Su-24 was downed by a Turkish F-16 fighter over the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic while returning to the Khmeimim airbase. Objective monitoring data showed that there was no violation of Syrian airspace,” the statement from the ministry said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says Turkey has a right to respond to violations of its airspace and it came in spite of repeated warnings. He also added Turkey would do “whatever is necessary” to ensure its security.
Turkey backstabbed Russia by downing the Russian warplane and acted as accomplices of the terrorists, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
The plane was hit by a Turkish warplane as it was travelling 1 km away from the Turkish border, Putin said. The plane posed no threat to Turkish national security, he stressed.
Putin said the plane was targeting terrorist targets in the Latakia province of Syria, many of whom came from Russia.
Russia noticed of the flow of oil from Syrian territory under the control of terrorists to Turkey, Putin said.
Apparently, IS now not only receives revenue from the smuggling of oil, but also has the protection of a nation’s military, Putin said. This may explain why the terrorist group is so bold in taking acts of terrorism across the world, he added.
The incident will have grave consequences for Russia’s relations with Turkey, Putin warned.
The fact that Turkey did not try to contact Russia in the wake of the incident and rushed to call a NATO meeting instead is worrisome, Putin said. It appears that Turkey want NATO to serve the interests of IS, he added.
Putin said Russia respects the regional interests of other nations, but warned the atrocity committed by Turkey would not go without an answer.
Putin was speaking at a meeting with King of Jordan Abdullah II in Sochi, who expressed his condolences to the Russian leader over the loss of a Russian pilot in Tuesday’s incident, as well as the deaths of Russians in the Islamic State bombing of a passenger plane in Egypt.
The two leaders discussed the anti-terrorist effort in Syria and Iraq and the diplomatic effort to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
Several protesters have showed up in front of the Turkish Embassy in Moscow to protest the downing of the Russian bomber. “Turkey, are you for or against ISIS?” one of the banners said in Russian.
Czech President Miloš Zeman has criticized Turkey for downing the Russian warplane.
“Sometimes one may suspect that Turkey has informal contacts with Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL]. Considering that the Russian Air Forces are fighting IS, the attack appears to be too radical a measure,” he said, as cited by Itar-Tass.
A video published by Turkish media reportedly shows two Russian helicopters, a Mi-8 transport and a Mi-24 gunship, patrolling the area around the crash site of the Russian Su-24 downed by Turkey.
The downing of the Russian jet by Turkey is a very serious incident, the UK Foreign Office said, adding that it was seeking further details.
"Clearly this is a very serious incident, but it would be unwise to comment further until we have more certainty on the facts," the ministry said.
Turkey has summoned the Russian Ambassador in Ankara following the warplane downing incident, Bloomberg reported.
The rebel group that released an alleged video of one of the Russian warplane pilots has told AP he was shot at by the group while in the air and was dead when he landed.
The Kremlin recommended not jumping to conclusions after the downing of a Russian warplane in Syria, saying it was too early to say how the incident could affect Russia’s relations with Turkey.
“What we should do is be patient. This incident is very serious, but until we see a complete picture, making any statements is impossible and wrong,” spokesman for the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov told the media.
The incident with the Russian warplane downed by Turkey is likely to complicate the anti-terrorist effort in Syria, UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said at a media briefing in Geneva.
A video published by the Turkish media reportedly shows the two pilots of the Russian Su-24 bomber parachuting to the ground after ejecting from the aircraft.
Footage has emerged online purportedly showing the body of one of the two Russian pilots of the downed plane. The video is said to have been shot by rebel forces in Syria. The footage could not be immediately verified. Russian officials have not reported on the status of the pilots.
NATO is closely monitoring the situation and is in contact with the Turkish authorities, it said in a statement.
Turkish news agency Dogan said Russian military helicopters were spotted near the crash site of the Russian plane, apparently taking part in a rescue operation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is to make a statement later in the day concerning the downing of the plane, his office said.
According to a Turkish military official, the country’s warplanes took down an unidentified fighter jet after it violated Turkish airspace and ignored demands to leave the area.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a Russian Su-24 bomber taking part in the anti-terrorist campaign in Syria was taken down near the border with Turkey. The plane may have been shot down from the ground, the ministry said. The statement stressed that the plane went down in Syria and did not violate Turkish airspace.