ISTANBUL – TODAY’S ZAMAN – December 08, 2015 – Turkey has been discussing possible counter measures against Russia and will impose sanctions if needed, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Tuesday, but also added that Ankara is ready to hold talks with Moscow to solve the crisis.
Speaking to fellow party members at a parliamentary meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Ankara on Tuesday, Davutoğlu said that Turkey is contemplating its own set of measures and would choose to implement sanctions against Russia if Moscow’s remain in place. He also said that Ankara remains open to talks with Russia at any time but it is against anyone dictating any terms to Turkey. The Turkish prime minister did not elaborate on what kind of measures Ankara is considering taking against Moscow.
Davutoğlu also said that his government is discussing ways to remedy the financial cost of Russian sanctions on Turkish agricultural producers. Russia imposed a raft of sanctions on Turkey after Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in late November after a violation of Turkish airspace. The incident has plunged bilateral relations to a historic low since the end of the Cold War and is threatening to degenerate into a broader confrontation in the regional theater.
The Turkish prime minister said that the incident took place near the Turkish-Syrian border, not the Turkish-Russian border. He called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to show empathy over Turkish concerns in Syria and asked how Russia would act if Russia’s ethnic kindred were threatened in a neighboring country in an indirect reference to Ankara’s sensitivities about Syrian Turkmens who are targets of the recent Russian military operation, along with the Syrian regime.
Speaking to the Russian Tass news agency in an interview, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called for common sense and calm so as not to further jeopardize bilateral relations. He called on Russia to lift sanctions against Turkey, saying that such moves are bound to hit mutual interests for both economies. “Such measures will have its toll on both economies and Russian people will suffer as much as Turkish people,” he added.
When asked about whether Turkey would consider implementing stricter control over access to the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits after the crisis with Russia, the Turkish foreign minister ruled out such an option and said Turkey would continue to implement the Montreux Convention with great care and transparency and in an objective manner.
Enraged by Turkey’s downing of its warplane, Putin has vowed to not to forget the incident. Turkey has rejected numerous Russian demands to apologize for the incident, saying it did nothing wrong.

Russia warns NATO against reinforcing Turkey’s air defense

Russia’s envoy to NATO has warned the alliance against boosting Turkey’s air defenses after the Turkish air force shot down a Russian warplane.
“If by NATO efforts Turkey tries to contain Russia, this will be an obstacle to the establishment of an international coalition against terrorism,” Alexander Grushko said on Monday, according to Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti news agency.
His remarks came after NATO allies discussed several options including sending patrol aircraft and air defense missiles to Turkey to reinforce its defenses on Dec. 2 after Russia’s increased military activities in northern Syria near the Turkish border.

Russia asks for UN council talks on Turkey’s action in Syria, Iraq
While the tension between Ankara and Moscow shows no signs of subsiding, Russia has asked the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to hold closed-door discussions on Turkish military action in Syria and Iraq, diplomats said on Monday.
Russia’s latest move is bound to fuel already simmering tensions between Moscow and Ankara.
Russia’s UN mission had no immediate comment. But council diplomats said they expected the Nov. 24 incident in which Turkey shot down a Russian plane would come up. Relations between Russia and Turkey have nosedived since that incident.
“We don’t have details but Russia has asked to discuss the issue of the Turkish action in Iraq and Syria,” a diplomat said. Other council diplomats echoed his remarks.
The discussion was expected to follow a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation council on unrelated issues beginning at 7 p.m. GMT on Tuesday, the diplomats said. The United States, the president of the UNSC this month, will chair the discussions.
Turkish officials have said the Russian plane it shot down violated Turkish airspace and had been warned repeatedly. Moscow says the aircraft was over Syria, where Russia is carrying out an air campaign to support the forces of President Bashar al-Assad in the nearly five-year-old civil war.
Russia says it is targeting Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, who have taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq and made inroads in Libya and Yemen. Western officials say very few of Russia’s airstrikes were aimed at ISIL, with most of them hitting Western-backed Syrian rebel groups.
Separately, Iraq has accused Turkey of violating its sovereignty by deploying a heavily armed contingent of forces to a camp near the front line in northern Iraq last week. It threatened to refer the case to the UNSC unless Turkey withdraws its forces. It was not clear if Russia intended to raise the specific Iraqi complaints, nor was it clear if the Russian delegation wanted the council to take action.
Turkey said on Monday it would not withdraw hundreds of soldiers who arrived last week at a base in northern Iraq, despite being ordered by Baghdad to pull them out within 48 hours. Ankara says the troops are there as part of an international mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight against ISIL. The Iraqi government says it never invited such a force.