Russian FM ready to meet with Turkish counterpart

“No one can blame Turkey, no one can expect an apology from Turkey”, Davutoğlu said in the speech, which was televised on Turkish television.

Once again defending Turkey’s move to down the plane, Davutoğlu said Turkey will not apologize for defending its borders.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Su-24 was flying only above the Syrian territory and did not violate Turkey’s airspace. However the Russian Defense Ministry differs, claiming it was shot down in Syrian airspace.

Putin didn’t address a peace process in Syria in his Thursday’s speech, focusing on the need to pool global efforts in the fight against terrorism following the attacks in Paris and the downing of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt. The IS has claimed responsibility for both.

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

“The Marmara region buys nearly all of its gas from Russian Federation and this region makes up 40 percent of Turkey’s GDP (gross domestic product) as well as its energy consumption”, said FACTS Global Energy consultant Cuneyt Kazokoglu.

“We never said oil smuggling from ISIL is not a problem”, he said, using an alternative acronym for IS.

Davutoğlu’s statement comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin threw any hopes of easing tensions onto the fire when he declared the incident a war crime on Thursday. Mr Lavrov called the sanctions “adequate”, adding that “most observers” agree.

“It was a huge mistake”, he added.

Russia’s exports to Turkey consist mainly of mineral resources, including hydrocarbons, while main import items were vegetables, fruit and textiles.

“If this is related to the task of Turkey’s protection, [a question] emerges – against whom North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is going to protect Turkey?”.

President Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have traveled to key energy partners Qatar and Azerbaijan respectively this week in an effort to avert any economically damaging disruption in energy supplies as winter sets in.

US President Barack Obama, who took a conciliatory tone in a meeting Monday with Putin, said Tuesday he believed Moscow would soon realize that the cost of its military intervention in support of Assad outweighed the benefits.

Sergey Lavrov says he will meet with Mevlut Cavusoglu in Belgrade on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting “to hear what he has to say”.