U.S. says Russian Federation violated Turkish airspace

While the German and US steps were announced weeks ago, Russia’s surprise intervention in Syria’s civil war in September has galvanised North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries to offer additional help to Turkey’s air force. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, countered by saying the USA stands firm in its position that al-Assad, a Russian ally, can’t stay in power and that Russian airstrikes continue to target legitimate opposition groups that the US and its allies want battling Islamic State on the ground.

Obama’s relationship with Putin is tense, but direct.

Since the downing of the Su-24 warplane on the Syrian border last week, this is Putin’s biggest accusation against Ankara.

“We are always willing to resort to the diplomatic language (…) we want to avoid the tensions”, he said.Stoltenberg, speaking at the start of a two-day meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation foreign ministers, said the focus should be on “how we can de-escalate and calm tensions (and find) mechanisms so that we can avoid the type of incident we saw last week”.

Russia will also ban charter flights with Turkey from December 1, 2015, with the exception of flights returning Russians home from holidays, the Russian government’s press service said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed Turkey shot the plane down to protect oil he says Turkey is illegally importing from IS, a charge Turkey vehemently denies.

Russian Federation announced a series of retaliatory sanctions aimed at Turkey’s key tourism and agricultural sectors.

“Certainly we are aware of what they’re putting in there…it’s a capability that we don’t see as being productive in the fight against [ISIS]”, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Monday.

“We will always support (the idea of a grand coalition) but we won’t get there as long as some people use terrorist groups to serve their short-term political interests”, Putin said.

TurkishPresidentRecepTayyipErdogansaidthat he wouldresign if RussianPresidentVladimirPutin’saccusationsthatTurkey is trading oil with the IslamicStategroup were proventrue.

Both presidents are in Paris for the United Nations summit on climate change, and though U.S. President Barack Obama was able to schedule a meeting with Putin between summit meetings, it appears Erdogan will not be as successful.

Erdogan says claims that Turkey buys oil from ISIL are “slander”. One of the pilots was killed during the incident while the other was rescued by the Russian forces. He added: “We apologize for committing mistakes, not for doing our duty”. “We’ve got to choke off their ability to bring in new fighters”.

Russian warplanes previously violated Turkish airspace twice in October.

Meanwhile, the Russian education ministry said it would repatriate “as soon as possible” Turkish students who are studying in Russia.

So far, the United States has moved special fighter jets created to intercept bombers and reconnaissance aircraft to the Turkish NATO air base Incirlik, while Britain has said it will also send jets to the region once NATO’s decision is formalised. Russian officials have said they could be expanded if necessary.