Putin Wants Foreign Help In Jet Probe

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he wants global experts to examine the black box of the Russian SU-24 jet downed for violating Turkish airspace on November 24. “The Turks have always played both sides, and I think [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan is one of those people [who] said one thing publicly and [has] done something else privately”, Huckabee argued.Huckabee said Erdoğan must leave office if the U.S. finds out that he is helping to finance the extremist group in Syria. The Turkish prime minister did not elaborate on what kind of measures Ankara is considering taking against Moscow.

It is unfortunate that the Russian authorities, especially President Putin, are paying no heed to the language of reconciliation from Turkey in its attempt to ease the tense relations between the two countries. While strongly rebuffing Turkish justifications for the act, Putin announced a series of punitive measures in retaliation for the shooting down of the Russian jet.

“We are ready to have talks and exchange views with Russian Federation”.

A serviceman aboard a Russian naval vessel was photographed allegedly brandishing a rocket launcher while passing through Istanbul Sunday in a move that has angered Turkish government officials.

While engaging with Russian Federation in a war of words, Turkey has also been wrangling with Iraq over sending troops into the war-torn country with informing the central government in Baghdad.

“Turkey hasn’t lost its moral principles as to purchase petroleum from a terror organization”, Erdogan said in Wednesday’s address at Qatar University, utilizing the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group, soon following the Russian Defense Ministry made the claims.

The Turkish prime minister said that the incident took place near the Turkish-Syrian border, not the Turkish-Russian border. Other council diplomats echoed his remarks. Ankara said the aircraft violated Turkish airspace near Syria despite repeated warnings.

The discussion was expected to follow a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation council on unrelated issues beginning at 7 p.m. GMT on Tuesday, the diplomats said.

“The incident did not take place on the Russia-Syria border either because there is no such border”.

Cavusoglu said Turkey would continue to implement the agreement governing the Bosphorus “neutrally, transparently” – a reference to the Montreux Convention, which gives Turkey control of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles Straits and regulates the passage of warships.