Turkey accuses Russian Federation of ethnic cleansing in Syria

Representatives from Syria s fragmented opposition on Wednesday began a two-day closed-door meeting in Saudi Arabia to seek a united front for potential talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Although this battle became personal for Putin when Turkey shot down one of his jets, it had always been that way for the Turks.

Russian commitment to the war in Syria was emphasised on Tuesday when, for the first time, it fired a cruise missile from a submarine, saying it had struck a site in Isil-controlled Raqqa province.

“They want to expel them, they want to ethnically cleanse this area so that the [Assad] regime and Russian bases in Latakia and Tartus are protected”, the prime minister added. But as the war in Syria draws more and more heavy-hitting combatants into the fray, Russian Federation – who has the second largest nuclear arsenal in the world according to nuclear watchdog ICAN – is reportedly weighing the use of weapons of mass destruction against ISIS, a considerably smaller foe than its Western counterpart.

The meeting will focus on efforts to forge a political transition and on the “framework and the architecture for a cease-fire”, said State Department spokesman John Kirby. He argued that the actions were serving the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday invited British experts to help analyse the black box of a warplane downed by Turkey, as he discussed the Syria crisis with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea a year ago, Hodges said Russia maintains a force of approximately 25,000 troops there, and said that while he did not see any imminent offensive on eastern Ukraine by the Russian military, they still maintain a capability in the region to mount an offensive on “short notice”. Some of them, like Russia 24’s Evgeny Poddubny and Alexander Kots of the popular tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, go beyond reporting for their outlets by regularly posting on Instagram about the Russian military’s successes and posing with weaponry.

He said: “The Prime Minister and president agreed that the United Kingdom and Russian Federation should work together, with other global partners, to tackle Daesh and the threat it poses, and on the political process to bring peace to Syria”. He is certain it will confirm his plane was not in Turkish airspace when attacked, and appears confident the data will support Russia’s claims.

Turkey, a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and of the US-led coalition that is bombing Islamic State in Syria, has long called for Assad’s overthrow. It means they (Russia) are strengthening Daesh.