Russia has accused Turkey’s government of fostering radical Islam and funding Islamic State, as it launched economic retaliation against Ankara for what it called the “deliberate and pre-planned” downing of one of Moscow’s jet fighters.
Turkey insisted that the pilots of two its F-16 jets that shot down a Russian Su-24 near the Syria-Turkey border on Tuesday were simply defending their state, as Moscow sent more high-tech firepower to its military forces in Syria.
The surviving member of the two-man Russian fighter crew was rescued on Wednesday in a part of northern Syrian disputed by government troops and militia, and claimed his jet had not entered Turkish airspace or been warned before it was hit; Ankara said it made several incursions and was warned 10 times to change course.
“It seems that this action was deliberate and pre-planned, and pursued a very specific purpose,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, in a telephone conversation on Wednesday.
“It was emphasised that, by shooting down the Russian plane . . . the Turkish leadership was effectively taking the side of Isil,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement, using another name for the group also known as Islamic State, Isis and Daesh.
Weapons and explosives
“Minister [Lavrov] noted in this regard Turkey’s role in illegal oil trade with Isil through the region where the plane was shot down, and the terrorist infrastructure there, and caches of weapons and explosives and control centres.”
The Russian ministry said Mr Cavusoglu expressed condolences for the death of the Su-24’s pilot, but added: “At the same time, his remarks in one way or another amounted to attempts to justify the actions of the Turkish air force.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, said his compatriots would be wise to avoid Turkey, where “the current government has for a considerable number of years followed a deliberate domestic policy of Islamisation”.
“We’re talking about support for more radical branches [of Islam], which in itself creates a hostile environment and atmosphere,” Mr Putin said.
“And after what happened yesterday, we can’t rule out other incidents.
“If they happen, we will in some way or other have to respond. And our citizens in Turkey could be subject to significant danger.”
Several major Russian holiday firms have withdrawn package deals to Turkey – where some 4.4 million Russians holidayed last year; chicken imports from some Turkish producers were banned from Russia on health grounds, and Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev warned of more significant measures to come.
With its “recklessly criminal actions”, Mr Medvedev said, Turkey was effectively “defending Isis terrorists, which is not surprising, given the available information that certain Turkish officials have direct financial interest in deliveries of oil products from Isis-owned facilities”.
“The direct consequences are likely to be the renunciation of a number of important joint projects and the loss by Turkish companies of their positions in the Russian market,” he added.
Taking their lead from the outrage of Russia’s leaders, protesters hurled stones and eggs at the Turkish embassy in Moscow, smashing several windows.
Russian bombing
In Russia’s lower house of parliament, meanwhile, a pro- Kremlin deputy proposed outlawing denial of the 1915 Ottoman Turkish massacres of up to 1.5 million Armenians as “genocide” – a term which infuriates Turkey’s leaders.
“We have no intention of escalating this incident. We are only defending our own security and the rights of our brothers,” said Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, referring to Turkmens in northern Syria who have suffered heavy Russian bombing.
“It has been said that they were there to fight Daesh . . . First of all, the Daesh terrorist organisation does not have a presence in this region of Latakia, and the north where Turkmens are based. Let’s not fool ourselves,” he said.
Like Washington and other western capitals, Ankara accuses Moscow of focussing attacks in Syria not on Islamic State but other militant groups opposed to president Bashar al-Assad, Russia’s main ally in the Middle East.
Mr Lavrov insisted that Russia “does not plan to go to war with Turkey” over this incident, but it was quick to announce reinforcements in Syria.
Russia’s defence ministry said its bombing of rebels in Syria would continue, and that high-tech land and ship-based air-defence systems would be deployed to protect its forces there.
