Turkey remains unapologetic as Russia readies sanctions

Russia has canceled an invitation for President Erdogan to visit the country in mid-December and says it is readying economic sanctions, while at home the Turkish leader remains unrepentant for his pilot's actions. Yesterday evening the Russian Foreign Ministry issued an advisory to all its citizens in Turkey to leave immediately, as the country started to roll out economic sanctions against Turkey. In the meantime, Greece has lodged an official complaint against Turkey after six Turkish fighter aircraft apparently entered Greek airspace only to be chased off after what the Greeks described as a dog-fight.

Russia has announced that it will impose import sanctions on Turkey and cancel major investment projects as the spat between the two countries over the downed Su-24 fighter jet continues.

The Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, said broad punitive steps could include halting joint economic projects, restricting financial and trade transactions and changing customs duties. There were calls to ban imports of all Turkish produce, while in the city of Krasnodar, dozens of Turkish workers were rounded up and arrested for visa violations.

Already, the country’s tourist board has suspended all tours to Turkey, a move that it estimated would cost the Turkish economy $10bn (£6.6bn). Russia also said it was suspending all military cooperation with Turkey, including closing down an emergency hotline to share information on Russian airstrikes in Syria.

Putin accused Turkey of deliberately trying to bring relations between Moscow and Ankara to a standstill, adding that Moscow was still awaiting an apology or an offer of reimbursement for damages. He earlier called the act a “stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorists” and promised “serious consequences”.

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”.

For two days, Russian officials have fumed over the incident and demanded an apology, while the Russian ambassador in Ankara was summoned in response to the Turkish embassy in Moscow being pelted with eggs and stones.

If Moscow expected to hear grovelling from Ankara, an apology was not forthcoming. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told CNN that Russia, not Turkey, should be apologising, and in a speech to local officials in Ankara dismissed as “emotional” and “unfitting” Russian suggestions that joint projects could be cancelled.

In response to Russian accusations that Turkey has been buying oil and gas from Islamic State in Syria, Erdoğan said: “Shame on you. It’s clear where Turkey buys its oil and gas ... Those who claim we are buying oil from Daesh [an Arabic acronym for Isis] like this must prove their claims. Nobody can slander this country.”

Russia has insisted that its plane never strayed from Syrian airspace, while Turkey says it crossed into its airspace for 17 seconds. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that even if this was the case, shooting the plane down was an extreme over-reaction and looked like a pre-planned provocation.

The plane’s pilot and a marine sent on a rescue mission died. The surviving navigator claimed in an interview with Russian television that he received no audio or visual warning before the plane was shot down. The Turks have released audio recordings of what they say are radio warnings issued to the plane.

The Russia-Turkey spat makes work harder for François Hollande, who held talks with Putin as part of a diplomatic marathon aimed at building a wide-ranging coalition to launch airstrikes against Isis. “I’m in Moscow with you to figure out how we can act together in order to coordinate our actions in order to hit this terrorist group and look for political solutions for Syria,” said Hollande in televised comments before the two presidents retired for talks.

Putin expressed his condolences over the Paris attacks earlier this month: “Our positions are the same. Russia has been the target of terrorist attacks for a long time. So we empathise with you, we know how you feel, how the people of France feel.”

Hollande and Putin met in the Kremlin late on Thursday. The meeting was more cordial than recent surly encounters over Ukraine, with Hollande referring to his counterpart as “mon cher Vladimir”, but appeared to yield little in the way of real progress.

As it has done for years, the issue of Bashar al-Assad’s fate still divides Moscow and most western capitals. Hollande said Assad “has no place” in a future Syria while Putin said the Syrian president had to be considered an ally.

“To successfully fight terrorism in Syria is impossible without ground operations, and there is no force in Syria which could take part in ground operations except Assad’s army. So I think Assad himself and his army is a necessary ally in the fight against terror,” he said.

Putin said he would prefer a broad coalition to fight Isis under a UN mandate, presumably with Assad’s backing, but conceded “our partners are not ready for this”. He said Russia would work with the US-led coalition where possible, but added that any further incidents such as the Turkish shoot-down of a Russian fighter jet on Tuesday were “absolutely unacceptable”. Hollande said that the two leaders had agreed on better intelligence coordination and exchange.





Moscow has been carrying out airstrikes in Syria for nearly two months, which western capitals say are aimed less at fighting Isis and more at propping up the Assad regime. Putin has said the best way to defeat Isis is to support the “legitimate government” of Assad and not to allow the institutions of state to crumble, as in Iraq and Libya.

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Hollande met Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday and Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, in Paris earlier on Thursday. He met David Cameron on Monday and Angela Merkel on Wednesday.



In Britain, a vote of MPs is due next week on the extension of airstrikes from Iraq to Syria. On Monday Cameron told Hollande that France could use a British airbase in Cyprus to fly missions against Isis.



Germany’s defence spokesman said Tornado reconnaissance jets would be sent to support the fight against Isis in Syria. Henning Otte said Germany would play a more active role, a day after Merkel told Hollande she would act swiftly to work out how her country could offer more support.