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Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequence

Howitzer

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Putin: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have ‘serious consequences’


One of the Russian pilots reported to be dead after falling into rebel hands, while second pilot still missing

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 24 November, 2015, 4:29pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 24 November, 2015, 11:23pm

Reuters, Agence France-Presse in Ankara

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A still image of a burning trail from the Russian bomber jet which was shot down. Photo: EPA

President Vladimir Putin accused Turkey of being accomplices of terrorism for shooting down a Russian warplane in Syria, warning of “very serious consequences” for relations

“We understand that everyone has their own interests but we won’t allow such crimes to take place,” Putin said at talks with Jordanian King Abdullah in Sochi.

“We received a stab in the back from accomplices of terrorism.”

Watch: Russian warplane is shot down by Turkish fighter jets near Syrian border



Turkish fighter jets shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday after repeated warnings over air space violations, but Moscow said it could prove the jet had not left Syrian air space.

It was the first time a Nato member’s armed forces have downed a Russian or Soviet military aircraft since the 1950s.

Footage from private Turkish broadcaster Haberturk TV showed the warplane going down in flames in a woodland area, a long plume of smoke trailing behind it.

Separate footage from Turkey’s Anadolu Agency showed two pilots parachuting out of the jet before it crashed. A Syrian rebel group released a video that appeared to show one of the pilots immobile on the ground and an official from the group said he was dead.

Jahed Ahmad, a spokesman for the group, said its forces fired at the pilots as they descended. One was dead when he reached the ground, Ahmad said. The rebels were still searching for the second pilot.

Russia’s defence ministry said one of its Su-24 fighter jets had been downed in Syria and that, according to preliminary information, the pilots were able to eject. It said the aircraft had been over Syria for the duration of its flight.

The Turkish military said the aircraft had been warned 10 times in the space of five minutes about violating Turkish airspace. Officials said a second plane had also approached the border and been warned.

“The data we have is very clear. There were two planes approaching our border, we warned them as they were getting too close,” a senior Turkish official said.

“We warned them to avoid entering Turkish airspace before they did, and we warned them many times. Our findings show clearly that Turkish airspace was violated multiple times. And they violated it knowingly,” the official said.

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Two parachutes are seen in the sky after the Russian plane was shot down near the Turkish-Syrian border. Photo: EPA

A second official said the incident was not an action against any specific country but a move to defend Turkey’s sovereign territory within its rules of engagement.

A Nato official said allies would hold an “extraordinary” meeting later Tuesday at Ankara’s request to discuss the incident. Each country summoned a diplomatic representative of the other.

Russia’s decision to launch separate air strikes in Syria mean Russian and Nato planes have been flying combat missions in the same air space for the first time since the second world war, targeting various insurgent groups close to Turkish borders.

The downing of the jet appeared to scupper hopes of a rapprochement between Russia and the West in the wake of the Islamic State attacks in Paris, which led to calls for a united front against the radical jihadist group in Syria.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was briefed by the head of the military, while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu ordered consultations with Nato, the United Nations and related countries, their respective offices said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the warplane crashed in a mountainous area in the northern countryside of Latakia province, where there had been aerial bombardment earlier and where pro-government forces have been battling insurgents on the ground.

“A Russian pilot,” a voice is heard saying in the video as men gather around the man on the ground. “God is great,” is also heard.

The rebel group that sent the video operates in the northwestern area of Syria, where groups including the Free Syrian Army are active but Islamic State, which has beheaded captives in the past, has no known presence.

The official from the group did not mention the second Russian pilot.

Broadcaster CNN Turk earlier reported that one of the pilots was in the hands of Turkmen forces in Syria who were looking for the other one, citing local sources. Russian military helicopters were also searching for the pilots, Turkey’s Dogan news agency said.
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A protester tries to throw eggs towards the Russian consulate in Istanbul. Photo: AFP

Both Russia and its ally, Syria’s government, have carried out strikes in the area. A Syrian military source said the reported downing was being investigated.

Turkey called this week for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss attacks on Turkmens in neighbouring Syria, and last week Ankara summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the bombing of their villages.

Ankara has traditionally expressed solidarity with Syrian Turkmens, who are Syrians of Turkish descent.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to visit Turkey on Wednesday to discuss Syria, in a trip arranged before this incident. Erdogan is meanwhile expected to visit Russia for talks with Putin in late December.

About 1,700 people have fled the mountainous Syrian area near to the Turkish border as a result of fighting in the last three days, a Turkish official said on Monday. Russian jets have bombed the area in support of ground operations by Syrian government forces.


 

nkfnkfnkf

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

Turk planes are now Russian missiles' targets.

https://www.rt.com/news/323329-russia-suspend-military-turkey/

Russia deploys missile cruiser off Syria coast, ordered to destroy any target posing danger

Published time: 24 Nov, 2015 18:16
Edited time: 24 Nov, 2015 20:18
Get short URL
A missile cruiser "Moscow" firing anti-aircraft missiles during the joint sailing of various fleets' vessels for combat training. © Vitaliy Ankov
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A missile cruiser "Moscow" firing anti-aircraft missiles during the joint sailing of various fleets' vessels for combat training. © Vitaliy Ankov / Sputnik
Moscow plans to suspend military cooperation with Ankara after the downing of a Russian bomber by Turkish air forces, Russian General Staff representatives said on Tuesday. Further measures to beef up Russian air base security in Syria will also be taken.

Three steps as announced by top brass:

Each and every strike groups’ operation is to be carried out under the guise of fighter jets
Air defense to be boosted with the deployment of Moskva guided missile cruiser off Latakia coast with an aim to destroy any target that may pose danger
Military contacts with Turkey to be suspended

Follow LIVE UPDATES on Russian warplane shot down at Syria-Turkey border

Sergey Rudskoy, a top official with the Russian General Staff, condemned the attack on the Russian bomber in Syrian airspace by a Turkish fighter jet as “a severe violation of international law”. He stressed that the Su-24 was downed over the Syrian territory. The crash site was four kilometers away from the Turkish border, he said.

#SYRIA#MoDprotest Efforts of Rus MoD specialists to organize coopertion with Turkish party by emergency communiction link were unsuccessful
— Минобороны России (@mod_russia) November 24, 2015

Rudskoy said the Russian warplane did not violate Turkish airspace. Additionally, according to the Hmeymim airfield radar, it was the Turkish fighter jet that actually entered Syrian airspace as it attacked the Russian bomber.

The Turkish fighter jet made no attempts to contact Russian pilots before attacking the bomber, Rudskoy added.

“We assume the strike was carried out with a close range missile with an infra-red seeker,” Rudskoy said. “The Turkish jet made no attempts to communicate or establish visual contact with our crew that our equipment would have registered. The Su-24 was hit by a missile over Syria’s territory.”

MAP: Monitoring data of Russian Su24 downed by Turkey in Syria released by Defense Ministry https://t.co/1rxn3pyMkXpic.twitter.com/PxLRNJugLk
— RT (@RT_com) November 24, 2015

Russia now plans to implement new measures aimed at strengthening the security of the country’s air base in Syria and in particular to bolster air defense.

Russian guided missile cruiser Moskva, equipped with the ‘Fort’ air defense system, similar to the S-300, will be deployed off Latakia province's coast.

"We warn that every target posing a potential threat will be destroyed,” lieutenant general Sergey Rudskoy said during the briefing.

The Moskva (‘Moscow’) missile cruise is a flagship vessel of the Russian Black Sea fleet and is one of the fleet’s two biggest ships. The cruiser was stationed in Sevastopol but left in summer 2015 after being deployed to the Mediterranean Sea where it joined Russia’s standing naval force in the Mediterranean.

Since September 30, the Moskva cruiser acts as a covering force for the Russian air forces in Syria while deployed in the eastern Mediterranean.

“All military contacts with Turkey will be suspended,” Rudskoy added.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW
 

3_M

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

I expect very intense bombardments against the Turkmen militias in Syria. This is to force turkey to intervene by sending jets into Syria and give Russia the excuse to shoot down turkey's planes as retaliation. If turkey refuses to take the bait, then it amount to lose of face and present a political dilemma for Turk PM as public pressure will mount on him to do something.
 

nitecrawllerr

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

If China intervene...ho say liao. Hell break loose and adios to Syria
 

kiwibird7

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

Turkey is in cahoots with ISIS giving them defacto air support to ISIS ground troops. NATO should sack TURKEY from membership. ISIS is trying to restore the OTTOMAN CALIPHATE which was TURKEY in WWI.
 

Thick Face Black Heart

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

Turkey is in cahoots with ISIS giving them defacto air support to ISIS ground troops. NATO should sack TURKEY from membership. ISIS is trying to restore the OTTOMAN CALIPHATE which was TURKEY in WWI.



The US and Israel are the main sponsors responsible for the rise of ISIS. You want NATO to sack the United States too?
 

biondi

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

ISIS planned for this. They want the great powers to turn on each and ISIS can sow in the chaos.
 

kiwibird7

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

If China intervene...ho say liao. Hell break loose and adios to Syria
CHINA, IRAN, RUSSIA are Pro Assad, the USA, Western allies are helping rebel forces (Free Syrian Army) topple Assad, duly elected leader of a sovereign state.

When ever a leader of the middle east country is removed by USA & allies by aiding rebels, more CHAOS results eg, Libya, Iraq etc
 

JimPendleton

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

Some info: http://theantimedia.org/how-the-war-in-syria-is-about-oil-not-isis/

Greedy people are after oil and gas in the Mid East. That is the prime motivation for the war in Syria.

It's a war waged by neocolonial powers - US, Britain, France and Israel - to build pipelines through Syria.

They are robbers and criminals and terrorists who want their way; no respect for the rights of others.

Planned pipelines extend from Qatar through Syria until they reach their final destinations in the refineries in Austria:
http://i0.wp.com/www.unicornriot.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/twopipelines.jpg
 

yellowarse

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

For the clueless here ranting about Islamic terrorism (in itself extremely ugly and virulent and destructive), the war and civil strife in Syria is not about religion. It's about regime change.

It’s about oil and gas: principally between the Russian-backed Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline from Iran’s giant South Pars field, and the Western-backed northern Qatar-Saudi-Syria-Turkey line supplying gas from Qatar (world’s 3rd largest reserves). Syria is the lynchpin, the key link, in both proposed pipelines – hence the need for a regime change as Assad is seen to be pro-Russian. (The Nabucco pipeline fell through because of Azerbaijan’s limited reserves.)

Russia and its allies are backing Assad and hence anti-ISIS. US and NATO and Israel are anti-Assad, and hence pro-ISIS.

It's not rocket science.

“A battle is raging over whether pipelines will go toward Europe from east to west, from Iran and Iraq to the Mediterranean coast of Syria, or take a more northbound route from Qatar and Saudi Arabia via Syria and Turkey. Having realized that the stalled Nabucco pipeline, and indeed the entire Southern Corridor, are backed up only by Azerbaijan’s reserves and can never equal Russian supplies to Europe or thwart the construction of the South Stream, the West is in a hurry to replace them with resources from the Persian Gulf. Syria ends up being a key link in this chain, and it leans in favor of Iran and Russia; thus it was decided in the Western capitals that its regime needs to change."

Migrant Crisis & Syria War Fueled By Competing Gas Pipelines
 

Rogue Trader

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

The middle east Muslims are mere meat puppets for NATO and Russia's war. Yet simple minded Muslims everywhere will scream "jeehad jeehad! allahu akbar!" thinking the world has declared war of them.

If Islam keeps refusing to modernise, its followers will continue to stay blind and easily manipulated by everyone (including their own political leaders).
 

singveld

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

I expect very intense bombardments against the Turkmen militias in Syria. This is to force turkey to intervene by sending jets into Syria and give Russia the excuse to shoot down turkey's planes as retaliation. If turkey refuses to take the bait, then it amount to lose of face and present a political dilemma for Turk PM as public pressure will mount on him to do something.
russian can also cut off natural gas, and stop all tourism there.
i suggest they use massive bomb to cut off river that goes into turkey.
 

Howitzer

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ


China to stay on the sidelines in Turkey-Russia tensions


PUBLISHED : Thursday, 26 November, 2015, 4:11am
UPDATED : Thursday, 26 November, 2015, 4:11am

Andrea Chen
[email protected]

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Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei. Photo: AP

China will keep its distance and avoid getting caught up in the fallout from Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border, analysts said yesterday.

Beijing does not have immediate interest in playing the mediator role, despite its close ties with Moscow, because the disputes are far more complex than the violation of airspace.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China was paying close attention to the incident and many circumstances “needed further clarification”.

“China supports the international community’s counterterrorism efforts, and we hope all parties will strengthen their communication and coordination,” Hong said.

Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov held talk on counterterrorism with Chinese ambassador to Moscow Li Hui on Tuesday after Turkish fighter jets shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber. Ankara also summoned ambassadors from five the United Nations Security Council’s permanent members, including China.

Ankara said it took such action only after the aircraft violated Turkish airspace and ignored repeated warnings, a claim Moscow has denied.

Tensions further escalated when a Russian rescue helicopter flying to the jet’s two pilots’ was also shot by Syrian rebels and crashed. The two air raids caused three Russian airmen dead.

And that is about as much as Beijing is prepared to do, despite its close ties with Moscow. Peking University international affairs expert Jia Qingguo said Beijing would not go beyond words to ease the tensions.

“China will urge both sides to maintain restraint and solve the disputes through negotiation, but it has no interest in becoming a mediator and getting entangled in others’ disputes,” Jia said. “The two countries are telling different stories … What they are fighting about is far more complicated than an airspace violation.”

Ankara has long accused Moscow of directing their fire during the fight against Islamic State at Syrian rebels, which Turkey and the United States both support. But Moscow says Ankara should be blamed for the rise of IS because the terrorist group was financed partly by its natural resources deals with Turkey.

Raffaello Pantucci, of international security studies at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, agreed that China would probably stay on the sidelines.

“They already have awkward relations with the Turks, which they wouldn’t want to complicate further,” he said.

The more immediate terror threats facing China come from Xinjiang . Ties between China and Turkey soured after Beijing accused Ankara of helping Uygurs flee Xinjiang to join terrorist groups abroad.

Zhang Jianrong , a Russian studies expert from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said China would simply share more counterterrorism intelligence with Russia and hold more joint exercises to combat the threat.

“The crisis in Syria is far away … and the Russian military does not really need Chinese forces or to replenish troops there anyway,” Zhang said

Zhang said Moscow might make use of the shooting to arrange anti-missile system on the ground in Syria, whose ruling government is in favor of Russia’s presence in the region.

Though an emergency Nato meeting was held in the wake of the crisis, other Nato members would not like to see tensions escalate further, Jia said.

Turkey’s stance on ISIS is not a hundred per cent consistent with the consensus of other NATO members. The Kurdish forces, who are also fighting the ISIS, are deemed as terrorist group by Ankara.

Other NATO members are also concerned they would be set against Russia by Ankara, who has its own agenda in the counter terrorism fight, Jia said.

Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov held talks on counterterrorism with Chinese ambassador to Russia Li Hui on Tuesday and Ankara also summoned ambassadors from the five UN Security Council’s permanent members.

Additional reporting by Kristine Kwok


 

Howitzer

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ


Turkish military says did not know downed jet was Russian


AFP
November 26, 2015, 8:11 am

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Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey's military said Wednesday it did not know the warplane it downed on the Syrian border was Russian and that it was ready for "all kinds of cooperation" with Moscow's army authorities following the incident.

The Turkish armed forces said in a statement it made significant efforts to find and rescue the pilots after the jet was shot down on Tuesday. They also called Moscow military authorities to express readiness for "all kinds of cooperation," the statement added.



 

Thick Face Black Heart

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

[FONT=&quot]November 24, 2015[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]AWD News[/FONT]

Posted October 18, 2015
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Turkish intelligence chief: Putin's intervention in Syria is against Islam and international law, ISIS is a reality and we are optimistic about the future[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Ankara--- Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization, known by the MİT acronym, has drawn a lot of attention and criticism for his controversial comments about ISIS.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Mr. Hakan Fidan, Turkish President's staunchest ally, condemned Russian military intervention in Syria, accusing Moscow of trying to 'smother' Syria's Islamist revolution and serious breach of United Nations law.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]“ISIS is a reality and we have to accept that we cannot eradicate a well-organized and popular establishment such as the Islamic State; therefore I urge my western colleagues to revise their mindset about Islamic political currents, put aside their cynical mentalité and thwart Vladimir Putin's plans to crush Syrian Islamist revolutionaries,” - Anadolu News Agency quoted Mr. Fidan as saying on Sunday.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Fidan further added that in order to deal with the vast number of foreign Jihadists craving to travel to Syria, it is imperative that ISIS must set up a consulate or at least a political office in Istanbul. He underlined that it is Turkey’s firm belief to provide medical care for all injured people fleeing Russian ruthless airstrikes regardless of their political or religious affiliation.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Recently as the fierce clashes between Russian army and ISIS terrorists are raging across the war-torn Syria, countless number of ISIS injured fighters enter the Turkish territory and are being admitted in the military hospitals namely those in Hatay Province. Over the last few days, the Syrian army with the support of Russian air cover could fend off ISIS forces in strategic provinces of Homs and Hama.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Emile Hokayem, a Washington-based Middle East analyst said that Turkey's Erdoğan and his oil-rich Arab allies have dual agendas in the war on terror and as a matter of fact they are supplying the Islamist militants with weapons and money, thus Russian intervention is considered a devastating setback for their efforts to overthrow Syrian secular President Assad.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Hokayem who was speaking via Skype from Washington, D.C. highlighted the danger of Turkish-backed terrorist groups and added that what is happening in Syria cannot be categorized as a genuine and popular revolution against dictatorship but rather it is a chaos orchestrated by Erdoğan who is dreaming to revive this ancestor's infamous Ottoman Empire.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]***[/FONT]​
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]​
Wiki:

In 2014, voice recordings, where Hakan Fidan, foreign minister Davutoğlu, Deputy Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Yasar Güler, and other military personnel discusses a potential false flag incursion into Syria, was leaked to YouTube and shared across Twitter. The event resulted in the Turkish government blocking access to Twitter, then YouTube, and finally the DNS servers of Google DNS and OpenDNS.[10] In the voice recording, he is heard saying, to a military personnel, "... f legitimacy [of a possible incursion into Syria] is an issue, I can simply send a few men there [across the Syria-Turkey border] and have them launch missiles over to us. Legitimacy is not a problem. Legitimacy can be manufactured." Seymour Hersh later linked what was said in this leaked meeting with CIA-Erdoğan dealings on Syria

***
[FONT=&quot]

Update. This story had such a huge global resonance that Anadolu Agency issued a statement:

Statement from Anadolu Agency

20.10.2015 Turkey[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
thumbs_b_c_8904f0e7231d9ed15938779d1038f75d.jpg



ANKARA

We hereby state that the recent stories on some foreign media outlets claiming that Anadolu Agency did an interview with Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan and published it are totally false.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
It is known that the MIT has no such practice of speaking to media.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
These fabricated stories by foreign sources are regarded as part of an international psychological campaign against Turkey.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Necessary steps have been taken to have such fabricated stories removed, with legal rights being reserved. [/FONT]
 

3_M

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

Turks accounts of events just doesn't tally. They claimed 10 warnings were given in a matter of 5min but Russian plane only strayed into their airspace for a mere 17sec. And how do you give 10 warnings within 17sec?

Moreover this is no excuse for shooting down the Russian plane. A similar incident happened in 2012 when Turkey F4 was shot down over Syria and this was what Turk PM said.


A short-term border violation can never be a pretext for an attack,”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was then-Turkish prime minister, told BBC at the time as he expressed rage over the downing of the plane.
 

Howitzer

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ


Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warns Russia not to ‘play with fire’ over downed jet

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would suspend its visa-free regime with Turkey, which could affect Turkey's tourism industry

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 28 November, 2015, 1:05pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 28 November, 2015, 1:05pm

Reuters in Istanbul

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Russia on Friday not to “play with fire”, citing reports Turkish businessmen had been detained in Russia, while Moscow said it would suspend visa-free travel with Turkey.

Relations between the former cold war antagonists are at their lowest in recent memory after Turkey shot down a Russian jet near the Syrian border on Tuesday. Russia has threatened economic retaliation, a response Erdogan has dismissed as emotional and indecorous.

The incident has proved a distraction for the West, which is looking to build support for the US-led fight against Islamic State in Syria. The nearly five-year-old Syrian civil war has been complicated by Russian air strikes in defence of President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey, which has long sought Assad's ouster, has extensive trade ties with Moscow, which could come under strain. Erdogan condemned reports that some Turkish businessmen had been detained for visa irregularities while attending a trade fair in Russia.

“It is playing with fire to go as far as mistreating our citizens who have gone to Russia,” Erdogan told supporters during a speech in Bayburt, in northeast Turkey. “We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia ... We don't want these relations to suffer harm in any way.”

He said he may speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a climate summit in Paris next week. Putin has so far refused to contact Erdogan because Ankara does not want to apologise for the downing of the jet, a Putin aide said. Erdogan has said Turkey deserves the apology because its air space was violated.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday Moscow would suspend its visa-free regime with Turkey as of January 1, which could affect Turkey's tourism industry. Turkey's seaside resorts are among the most popular holiday destinations for Russians, who make up Turkey's largest number of tourist arrivals after Germany.

An association of Russian defence factories, which includes the producers of Kalashnikov rifles, Armata tanks and Book missile systems, has recommended its members suspend buying materials from Turkey. That could damage contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

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A protester sets fire to a poster depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and reading

Russia's agriculture ministry has already increased checks on food and agriculture imports from Turkey, in one of the first public moves to curb trade.

Turkish government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus said on Friday Turkey's council of ministers was also discussing which measures to take, but that he hoped that these would not last long.

“I couldn't imagine that Russia would completely abandon its relations with Turkey over such an incident,” he said. “For us it's impossible for Turkey to abandon its relations with Russia over such an incident.”

Erdogan said that Turkey did not go looking to shoot down a Russian jet but acted after it strayed into Turkish air space. It was, he said, an “automatic reaction” to standing instructions given to the military. Moscow insists the jet never left Syrian air space.

Lower house speaker Sergei Naryshkin called the incident an “intentional murder” of its soldiers, saying Russia had the right to mount a military response.

The incident has worsened the outlook for the Syrian peace process, dashing recent optimism following the Group of 20 meeting in Turkey where US President Barack Obama held an informal meeting with Putin.

“It certainly did not help,” UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said.

However, Putin did ask France to draw up a map of where groups fighting Islamic State militants operate in Syria in order not to bomb them, France's foreign minister said.

Turkey and Russia have also traded blows over Islamic State, with each side accusing the other of being soft on terrorism. Lavrov, Moscow's foreign minister, said on Friday Russia had “more and more questions” about Ankara's commitment to eradicating terrorism.

Erdogan has rejected Russia's accusations that Turkey is buying oil and gas from Islamic State, calling it “slander” and saying Turkey only made purchases from known sources. He also accused Russian companies and Islamic State of selling oil to the Syrian regime.

Separately, warplanes believed to be Russian carried out several air strikes on a Syrian town near the Turkish border on Friday, a monitoring group said, one of several reported close to the boundary this week.


 

Howitzer

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Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ


Russia seeks economic revenge against Turkey over downing of warplane


PUBLISHED : Friday, 27 November, 2015, 9:35am
UPDATED : Friday, 27 November, 2015, 10:21am

Reuters in Istanbul and Moscow

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A portrait of Russian Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov among flowers outside the Russian Defence Ministry building in Moscow on Thursday. Peshkov died when his SU-24 bomber jet was downed by a Turkish F-16 fighter. Photo: EPA

Russia threatened economic retaliation against Turkey on Thursday and said it was still awaiting a reasonable explanation for the shooting down of one of its warplanes this week, but Turkey dismissed the threats as “emotional” and “unfitting.”

In an escalating war of words, President Tayyip Erdogan responded to Russian accusations that Turkey has been buying oil and gas from Islamic State in Syria by accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his backers, which include Moscow, of being the real source of the group's financial and military power.

The shooting down of the jet by the Turkish air force on Tuesday was one of the most serious clashes between a Nato member and Russia, and further complicated international efforts to battle Islamic State militants.

World leaders have urged both sides to avoid escalation. In an apparent attempt to cool the dispute - and appeal to Western countries - Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a letter to Britain's Times newspaper that Ankara would work with its allies and Russia to “calm tensions”.

Earlier, 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.

Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Moscow could put limits on flights to and from Turkey, halt preparations for a joint free trade zone, and restrict high-profile projects including the TurkStream gas pipeline and a US$20 billion nuclear power plant Russia is building in Turkey.

Russia's defence ministry meanwhile said it had suspended all cooperation with the Turkish military, including a hotline set up to share information on Russian air strikes in Syria, the TASS news agency reported.

“We are strategic partners ... 'Joint projects may be halted, ties could be cut'? Are such approaches fitting for politicians?,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.

“First the politicians and our militaries should sit down and talk about where errors were made and then focus on overcoming those errors on both sides. But instead, if we make emotional statements like this, that wouldn't be right.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was still awaiting a reasonable answer from Ankara on why it downed the fighter jet. Moscow insists it never left Syrian air space, but Ankara says it crossed the border despite repeated warnings.

The Turkish foreign ministry said diplomatic missions and Turkish business interests in Russia had come under attack and said Russia's ambassador in Ankara had been summoned in protest.

Erdogan said the Russian jet was shot down as an “automatic reaction” to the violation of Turkish air space, in line with standing orders given to the military.

Those instructions were a separate issue to disagreements with Russia over Syria policy, he said, adding Ankara would continue to support moderate rebels in Syria and Turkmen fighters battling President Assad's forces.

Erdogan told CNN that Russia, not Turkey, should be the one to apologise for the incident. And in an interview with France 24, he said he had called Putin after the jet was shot down but that the Russian leader had not yet called him back.

Medvedev on Wednesday alleged that Turkish officials were benefiting from Islamic State oil sales, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was no secret that “terrorists” use Turkish territory.

“Shame on you. It's clear where Turkey buys its oil and gas ... Those who claim we are buying oil from Daesh like this must prove their claims. Nobody can slander this country,” Erdogan said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

“If you are seeking the source of weaponry and financial power of Daesh, the first place to look is the Assad regime and countries that act with it,” he said.

Moscow says its military involvement in Syria is aimed at battling terrorist groups including Islamic State, casting the campaign to a supportive Russian public as a moral crusade that must be completed despite obstruction from elsewhere.

Turkey and its allies say Russia's real aim is to prop up its ally Assad and that it has been bombing moderate opposition groups in areas of Syria like Latakia, where the jet was downed, and where there is little or no Islamic State presence.


 

Kuailan

Alfrescian
Loyal
Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ

IMG-20151127-WA0000.jpg

Obama called Putin what's he having for Thanks Giving?

Answer was obvious!
 

Howitzer

Alfrescian
Loyal
Re: Turkey’s downing of Russian warplane near Syrian border will have serious consequ


Turkey gives body of pilot to Russia

Date November 30, 2015 - 7:31AM
Dasha Afanasieva and Lidia Kelly

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Turkish army officers salute as a Turkish honour guard carries the coffin of Russian pilot Lieutenant-Colonel Oleg Peshkov into a Turkish air force transport plane at Hatay airport, Turkey. Photo: AP

Ankara/Moscow: Turkey recovered the body of a Russian pilot from northern Syria and presented it to Russian diplomats on Sunday, five days after shooting down his warplane in an incident that wrecked relations between two of the main powers involved in Syria's war.

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Lieutenant-Colonel Oleg Peshkov died after his plane was shot down.

A coffin carrying Oleg Peshkov​ arrived by ambulance on the tarmac of Hatay Airport in southern Turkey near the Syrian border, a Reuters photographer said.

It was flown to the capital Ankara, where, according to Russia's RIA news agency, it was met at an airfield by Moscow's ambassador and military attache. The Russian embassy declined to comment and Turkish officials did not immediately disclose when the body would be repatriated to Russia.

The shooting down of the Russian fighter jet by NATO-member Turkey, the first known incident of its kind since the Cold War, has set back efforts to forge a united front against Islamic State in the weeks since militant group claimed responsibility for mass killings in Paris and blowing up a Russian airliner.

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The Russian Sukhoi Su-24 downed by Turkish F-16s. Photo: AP

Moscow has responded towards Ankara with fury, calling the episode a pre-planned provocation. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Saturday imposing punitive economic sanctions against Turkey. Details of Turkish goods that will be banned and other measures under the decree are expected to be announced in coming days.

Since the downing of the plane, Moscow has ramped up air strikes against rebels in Syria near the Turkish border. Civil defence workers in opposition-held territory said dozens of civilians were killed on Sunday in a strike by apparent Russian warplanes on a crowded market in the town of Ariha.

Turkey says it shot down Lieutenant-Colonel Peshkov's plane in its air space after repeated warnings were ignored. Russia says it was flying over Syria and was struck unprovoked. The navigator of the two-seat jet survived, but a second Russian service member was killed rescuing him from northern Syria.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday that Lieutenant-Colonel Peshkov's body had arrived in Turkey overnight, but gave no further details of how it was recovered or brought across the border.

Turkey is part of a coalition of countries led by the United States that have been bombing Islamic State positions in both Syria and Iraq, while also calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Russia, which supports President Assad, launched its own separate bombing campaign against his opponents nearly two months ago. While it says it is also targeting Islamic State, most of its air strikes have been against other Assad opponents, including groups actively supported by Turkey.

Mr Davutoglu called for more military co-operation: "Communication and co-ordination in Syria operations is needed in order to prevent further incidents, because two different coalition groups conducting operations in Syrian air space always risk leading to similar incidents," he said, before getting on a plane to Brussels for a meeting on the migrant crisis with EU leaders. He also accused Russia of using anti-IS operations as a pretext to help President Assad.

Russia has stepped up strikes in north-western Syrian areas held by enemies of President Assad but not IS.

Sunday's worst strike killed 43 people in a crowded market in Ariha, said Mohamed Queissi, a rescue worker with the Civil Defence service that operates in rebel-held areas. The bodies of 31 had been identified, with 12 more awaiting identification.

"The vendors were shouting loudly as people were buying and selling and suddenly we heard the sound of the planes and in less than a second the jets struck and there was deadly silence," said Mohamed Amine Qurabi, 25, a second Civil Defence worker reached by phone in the town.

"I saw people thrown in the street, strewn corpses and terrified children crying and shouting for their parents."

Earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said at least 18 people had died and dozens more were wounded, with the death toll expected to rise.

Turkey is a major customer of Russian natural gas exports and a big destination for Russian tourists. Russia buys Turkish exports, including produce, having already banned food from the US and EU in retaliation for financial sanctions imposed over Moscow's intervention in Ukraine.

Russia's Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko​, said on Sunday Moscow would not boycott international sporting events held in Turkey, but would require maximum security and would limit training trips by Russian athletes there, RIA reported.

Turkey is one of the neighbours most affected by the four-year-old civil war in Syria, having hosted 2 million refugees while calling loudly for the downfall of President Assad. It has been angered by the Russian military campaign in Syria, complaining in particular in recent weeks about Moscow's targeting of ethnic Turkmen rebels in the border area, who are close kin with Turks.

Pro-government newspaper Sabah Daily reported that Turkey had tightened security along its border with Syria on Saturday, deploying additional tanks, armoured personnel vehicles and other weapons. A Turkish official said he could not confirm this.

Syrian state media quoted President Assad as telling a senior Iranian official on Sunday that his enemies had increased funding and weapons supplies to insurgents.



 
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