Putin Calls For Sanctions Against Turkey

The latest Russian move comes after two Turkish F-16 fighter jets on an aerial patrol intercepted an unidentified warplane Tuesday within engagement rules when it intruded into Turkish airspace on the Turkey-Syria border.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus has said Turkey and Russia will not sacrifice their bilateral relations because of the recent downing of a Russian aircraft which violated Turkish airspace.

The Russian government is now preparing economic retaliatory measures against Turkey, a major trading partner particularly in the tourism and agriculture sectors. Davutgolu was speaking before flying to Brussels for a summit with the European Union.

In accordance with the decree, Turkish companies of transportation shall be restricted in their operations in Russian territories, with Turkish ships and boats being banned from staying at or navigating across Russian ports, while import of certain goods from Turkey will be halted.

RIA reported that Medvedev called for sanctions to be “most effective for the Turkish side but minimally affecting our economic interests”.

Russia has previously banned food imports from the European Union and United States over the Ukraine crisis, a measure which has been blamed for fueling price rises of food on the Russian market.

A war plane crashes in flames in a mountainous area in northern Syria after it was shot down by Turkish fighter jets near the Turkish-Syrian border on Nov 24, 2015.

Putin said he believed the US, a coalition ally with Turkey, should have prevented the downing of the plane.

Vladimir Putin described that incident as a “stab in the back, carried out against us by accomplices of terrorists”.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said there were close to 90,000 Turkish nationals working in Russian Federation.

Russian Federation and Turkey have accused each other of aiding Islamic State, but both say they are battling the militants who have taken swathes of land in Iraq and Syria.

Erdogan said: “We wish it hadn’t happened, but it happened”.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement that following difficulties faced by Turkish visitors and residents in Russian Federation, it advised Turks to postpone all non-urgent travel.