Russia Hosts Pro-Kurdish Turkish Politician Who Condemns Ankara
ANKARA-Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has accused the leader of the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas of “treason” by saying in Moscow that he thought Turkey’s shooting down of the Russian warplane last month was “not right”.
Demirtas on Wednesday held closed-door talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Turkish Prime Minister accused Thursday an opposition leader of betrayal after his comments that Turkey made a “mistake” downing the Russian aircraft. It was not immediately clear which other Russian politicians he was meeting. The Turkish MoD had said that the plane had violated Turkish airspace, a claim denied by Russian Federation whose foreign ministry said that the jet was well within Syrian airspace when it was shot down.
“Our main duty is to raise our voice against Russian cruelty”.
During French President Francois Hollande’s visit to Moscow in mid-November, he and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, vowed to share military intelligence on combating the IS in Syria, which the two leaders said was a step toward forming an worldwide anti-terror coalition.
Over 200 Turkish security personnel have been killed in the conflict in Turkey’s Southeast since the PKK assassinated 2 police officers in what it said was retaliation for failure of the state to prevent a suspected ISIL militant from detonating a suicide bomb in Şanlıurfa’s Suruç district and killing 34, injuring over 100.
“There could be crises between countries but we always favour that diplomatic channels be kept open and problems be resolved through dialogue”, he said.
De Villiers said at a meeting with Gerasimov on Wednesday that it was time for Russian Federation and France to unite their efforts in the struggle against the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organizations (both outlawed in Russia).