Putin denounces Turkey at state of nation address

“We were prepared to cooperate with Turkey on most sensitive issues and go further than their allies”. Given the general mood in the ministers’ home countries, however, the tension persisted.

Deutsche Welle quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin saying in his annual State of the Nation address to parliament: “We will not rattle our sabres”.

The two presidents, who forged a strong friendship in over a decade in power, have traded a slew of insults since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on November 24 on the Syrian border for alleged repeated violations of its airspace. Another Russian serviceman was killed in the rescue operation.

Ankara said that it is impossible to close the border and Daesh terrorists may boost their forces in response, according to The Hurriyet Daily News.

“But what I’ve been very clear about is that we are going to systematically squeeze and ultimately destroy ISIL and that requires us having a military component to that”, he told CBS, using an acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIS or Daesh.

Putin did, however, threaten further unspecified actions beyond the scattered measures already announced. “But if someone thinks they can commit a heinous war crime, kill our people and get away with it, suffering nothing but a ban on tomato imports, or a few restrictions in construction or other industries, they’re delusional”.

Turkey is heavily dependent on foreign oil and natural gas, importing 98 percent of its natural gas from Russian Federation and Iran and 90 percent of oil demand from Iraq.

Putin and ErdoganIt is the latest in a series of claims Russian Federation has made about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family firms enjoying trade ties with IS.

Officials on Friday confirmed that some small amount of oil may cross the Syria-Turkish border in tanker trucks, but not in quantities that would interest government officials.

The Turkish Prime Minister again defended Turkey’s action and said Ankara would not apologise for “defending its borders”.

“In the Cold War period there was a Soviet propaganda machine. They would believe them and then expect the world to believe them”. Hours after the British parliament agreed to join a coalition fighting the militant group, British bombers attacked six targets in the Omar oil fields in eastern Syria controlled by Islamic State.

The Turkish and Russian foreign ministers, meanwhile, met on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade on Thursday, the first at a senior level between the two countries since the plane’s downing. “We know how much Erdogan’s words are worth”, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said.

The official said the truck drivers would have to drive a long way across Syria to make it to the border, passing many checkpoints and making the journey both unsafe and expensive. “They should know that we do not equate them and part of the current Turkish leadership, which holds a direct responsibility for the deaths of our troops in Syria, ” he said.