Erdogan: Turkey refuses to apologize for downing the Russian warplane

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Turkey still has not apologized for the downing of a Russian warplane or given assurances that “the culprits of this crime” will be punished.

“We view this as the formation of a wide anti-terrorist coalition under the aegis of the United Nations”, Putin said. “I can admit that there may be some elements of corruption, secret dealing, they should sort it out”, said Putin.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday angrily rebuffed the Kremlin’s demands for an apology and said his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had snubbed a phone call from him after the incident. Russian Federation has since restricted tourist travel, left Turkish trucks stranded at the border, confiscated large quantities of Turkish food imports and started preparing a raft of broader economic sanctions.

Mr Cameron had expressed support for Mr Hollande’s decision to strike at ISIS in Syria when the two met in Paris on Monday, adding that Britain should do so too.

A Hezbollah TV station says a joint operation by the Lebanese militant group and Syrian security agents killed an Islamic State figure suspected of involvement in Beirut’s deadly bombing earlier this month.

Russia’s lower house speaker Sergei Naryshkin said on Friday that Moscow had the right to make a military response, calling the incident an “intentional murder of our soldiers”.

The civil war that broke out in Syria in 2011 led to an increase in the frequency of Turkish air space violations by Syrian, Greek and most recently, Russian jets and planes, according to diplomatic sources.

“You must know that we are not as dishonourable as to buy oil from a terrorist organisation”, he said.

“This escalation is significant, because until now, despite major differences over Syria, Russian-Turkish relations remained very cordial, and economic and tourism ties very solid”, said Karim Bitar of the Institute for worldwide and Strategic Affairs. “After all, one of his regime’s primary antagonists (Turkey) is now starkly at odds with his most important backer (Russia)”, the experts said. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is backing the Turkish account of events, as is USA military.

Mr Erdogan labelled attempts to link his country with IS jihadists as “disrespectful” to Turkey.

A Reuters correspondent on the Turkish side of the border saw rockets and tank shells being fired from government-controlled western Latakia eastwards into rebel-held territory, sending plumes of smoke rising from the wooded hillsides.

“Turkmen are Turkey’s ethnic kin but the world should understand that there is a bigger issue at stake here”, said a senior Turkish official.