Planned Putin-Erdogan Summit in Russia Canceled, Says Kremlin

Relations between Ankara and Moscow have been tense since a Russian fighter jet which violated Turkish airspace was shot down by Turkish forces after repeated warnings on November 24.

State Department spokesman John Kirby in Washington rejected Russian claims of preconditions that must be reached for the next round of worldwide Syria talks to take place in NY on Friday.

After the downing of the warplane, which led to the deaths of a pilot and another serviceman who attempted to rescue him, Russian Federation introduced economic sanctions against Turkey and beefed up its firepower at its airbase in Syria.

Tension is high between Turkey and Russian Federation. Russian ships have traversed the Straits unimpeded for decades, but under the 1936 Montreux Convention, Turkey is allowed to close the Straits in a war with Russia or if it considers itself to be “threatened with imminent danger of war”.

Putin also called the incident a “stab in the back, carried out by the accomplices of terrorists”.

Russian Federation says its airstrikes since late September have targeted the Islamic State, but Western governments claim mostly moderate rebels are being hit and that Moscow is primarily concerned with shoring up Assad.

“Unless these expectations of ours are met, other statements made by Turkey will not yield any results”, said Andrey Karlov, in an interview with the Turkish Cumhuriyet daily and reported by Today’s Zaman.

Sunday’s incident was in the northern Aegean, about 22 kilometers from the Greek island of Lemnos, according to the Russian defense ministry. “We want to overcome tensions through dialogue”, Cavusoglu said.

He also criticised Russia’s military intervention in Syria, saying it was aimed at propping up the regime of President Bashar Al Assad, not combating.

Turkey’s will – or ability – to challenge that influence “is a new thing for Russian Federation, so we’ll see how Moscow responds – and how the U.S. manages the emergence of the new power center Turkey is seemingly trying to create”, Mr. Gürcan said.

Moscow summoned a Turkish military attaché over the incident, telling the official of “potentially disastrous consequences from Ankara’s reckless actions toward Russia’s military continent fighting against worldwide terrorism in Syria”, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. So in the wake of the fiasco, here are five ways Russian Federation is making life hard for Turkey.

With videos, satellite photos and documents, Russian Federation denounced before more than 100 journalists and military attaches the complicity of Turkey in the oil smuggling with the ISIL and other terrorist groups, as well as its logistical support and arms supplies to these forces.