Turkey says Turkish, Russian minister to meet today

Mevlut Cavusoglu was speaking Thursday night after his first meeting with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during an OSCE summit in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.

“We gave our response to the claims that have been raised”, Cavusoglu said after the talks.

The meeting will take place on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe meeting in Belgrade, RIA news agency reported, citing a diplomatic source.

Moscow and Ankara have been locked in a furious war of words over Turkey’s downing of a Russian plane along its border with Syria on November 24, with Moscow accusing leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan of profiting from the oil trade with Islamic State jihadists.

Turkey is looking for alternatives to Russian grain after the dispute between Moscow and Ankara over the shooting down of a Russian warplane placed a question mark over future deliveries and put new deals on hold, traders and analysts said.

A war plane crashes in flames in a mountainous area in northern Syria after it was shot down by Turkish fighter jets near the Turkish-Syrian border on Nov 24, 2015.

“We extend our condolences to the Russian pilot who was killed in the incident”.

Turkey said the plane violated its airspace for 17 seconds despite repeated warnings; Russian Federation denies that.

However, in comments broadcast on Russian television, Lavrov said: “We met with Mr Cavusoglu…”

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Thursday for “one powerful fist” to fight terrorism, hinted at more sanctions against Turkey and accused Western powers of creating “a zone of chaos”.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday after talks in Baku with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev that the TANAP gas project could be completed before its original target, 2018.

Alexey Miller, chief executive officer of the Russian energy company, Gazprom, said that Turkey had not returned to Russia with a proposal about the project, adding that it was now waiting for an intergovernmental agreement between Ankara and Moscow. “Every day it created different lies …This was an old tradition but it has suddenly reared its head again”, Davutoglu said.

“Who is buying oil [from IS]?”

“According to our data, the top political leadership of the country – President Erdogan and his family – is involved in this criminal business”, Antonov stressed.