Turkey summons Russian envoy over alleged rocket launcher on ship

Relations have deteriorated sharply since Turkey last month became the first North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member in more than half a century to down a Russian plane, which it said had violated its airspace while flying sorties over Syria.

“The economy and trade has always occupied a special place in our bilateral relations”. The US also said it did not believe Erdogan was involved.

“Instead of an escalation of the current tensions, we need to calmly and as soon as possible to overcome this period and then return to our relationship back on track. Otherwise, the said economic measures will affect directly the economies of the countries and will cause negative consequences for the Russian people, no less than for the Turkish people”, he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, has challenged Putin’s claims, vowing to step down if the Russian allegations were proven and calling on Putin to do the same if they were proven to be false.

The passage of the Russian warship through the Turkish straits comes amid escalating tension between the two countries after a Turkish F-16 recently downed a Russian Su-24 near the Syrian border.

Russian Federation has retaliated by deploying long-range air defense missile systems to its base in Syria and imposing economic sanctions on Turkey.

On November 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that suspends employment of Turkish workers starting from January 1, 2016.

The United States said it rejected the premise that the Turkish government was in league with the militants to smuggle oil. The government is instructed to tighten control over activities of Turkish haulage companies and to ban chartered flights between Russian Federation and Turkey with the goal of ensuring security within Russian Federation.