Turkish president Erdogan warns Russia not to 'play with fire'; Russian visas for Turkish nationals suspended
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has warned Russia not to "play with fire", but says he does not want to harm relations with Moscow, comments that look more likely to inflame rather than quell the dispute over a downed Russian bomber.
Key points:
- Russia threatens economic retaliation against Ankara
- Visa-free regime to be suspended
- Russian bombing raids "struck at least 17 Turkmen locations"
Relations between the former Cold War antagonists are at their worst in recent memory after Turkey shot down the jet near the Syrian border on Monday.
Russia has threatened economic retaliation against Ankara, which Turkey has dismissed as "emotional" and "unfitting".
"We very sincerely recommend to Russia not to play with fire," Mr Erdogan told supporters during a speech in Bayburt, in northeast Turkey.
"We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia ... we don't want these relations to suffer harm in any way."
Mr Erdogan said he wanted to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the climate summit in Paris after the downing of a Russian warplane.
"I would like to meet him face to face on Monday," Erdogan said, after days of tit-for-tat accusations over the incident.
Mr Putin has so far refused to contact Mr Erdogan because Ankara does not want to apologise for the downing of the jet, Mr Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said.
On Friday, Russia said it would suspend its visa-free regime for Turkish nationals from January, as a form of retaliation.
"A decision has been made to halt the visa-free regime with Turkey," foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after talks with Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.
"This decision will enter into force from January 1, 2016."
Russia earlier warned citizens not to travel to Turkey, whose affordable beaches are hugely popular with Russian holidaymakers, and the foreign ministry on Thursday urged Russians who are already in Turkey to come home, citing "existing terrorist threats".
Mr Lavrov on Friday denied that the decision to suspend the visa-free regime was an act of revenge.
"Threats from this country are quite real," he said, adding that "fighters" were passing through Turkey "in all directions".
"Russia is quite concerned with increasing terrorist threats in the Republic of Turkey," he said.
"This is directly linked to the safety of Russia and our citizens."
Russian bombing raids 'target Turkmen'
Meanwhile, Russian Defence Ministry data, collated by Reuters, shows the bombing raids have struck at least 17 named locations in Turkmen areas since Mr Putin ordered them to begin on September 30.
Russian missiles have destroyed ammunition bunkers, command points and a suicide bomb factory in towns including Salma, Ghmam and Kesladshuq to the west of Syria's Alawite mountains, according to the data, an area humanitarian groups say is ethnically Turkmen.
We are extremely worried that the anti-Islamic State coalition is being weakened by these bombardments. How could a campaign against Islamic State be conducted by bombing these rebels which are actually battling Islamic State?
Salma, which has a majority Turkmen population, has been bombed on at least eight occasions and has found itself at the centre of some of the most geographically concentrated strikes.
Russian jets have hit 15 separate named targets within a 13 kilometre radius of the town, which is used as a base by Turkish-backed rebels in their fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Mr Erdogan said Turkey downed the jet as a result of what he called the automatic enforcement of the rules of engagement.
Russia's lower house speaker Sergei Naryshkin said on Friday that Moscow had the right to make a military response, calling the incident an "intentional murder of our soldiers".
Mr Erdogan said it was not the first time Russian jets had breached Turkish air space and that he had warned Putin about "ugly incidents" after two incursions in October.
The president also attacked Russia's policy in Syria after it launched air strikes in September, accusing the Kremlin of backing the regime of "murderer" president Bashar al-Assad.
He claimed that the Russian air raids did not target Islamic State (IS).
He said backing the regime in Damascus after more than four years of war that has killed 250,000 people was like "playing with fire".
The Turkish strongman also struck back at Russian "slander" that Turkey was buying oil from IS.
"You must know that we are not as dishonourable as to buy oil from a terrorist organisation," he said.
"Turkey is buying oil from Russia."
Mr Erdogan labelled attempts to link his country with IS jihadists as "disrespectful" to Turkey.
A Syrian Kurdish leader said Ankara had shot down the Russian bomber because the groups it backed were losing territory.
"Turkmen are Turkey's ethnic kin but the world should understand that there is a bigger issue at stake here," said a senior Turkish official.
"We are extremely worried that the anti-Islamic State coalition is being weakened by these bombardments.
"How could a campaign against Islamic State be conducted by bombing these rebels which are actually battling Islamic State?"
Reuters/AFP