PM spurns Russia fury as plane spat grows
ANKARA: Turkey’s prime minister struck a defiant tone yesterday in his nation’s growing spat with Russia, declaring his country cannot be “brought to its knees’’ by Russian economic sanctions imposed in response to Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane.
In a speech during a visit to Baku, Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu again defended Turkey’s action and said Turkey won’t apologise for defending its borders.
Mr Davutoglu insisted Turkey did not know the nationality of the plane it downed inside Turkish air space. He suggested the plane was brought down because Turkey could not “morally” allow the plane to trespass on Turkish territory before bombing areas in Syria where ethnic Turkish populations live.
“No one can blame Turkey, no one can expect an apology from Turkey,’’ Mr Davutoglu said in the televised speech. “We would not apologise for defending our borders.’’
“Those who believe that economic sanctions against an honourable nation like Turkey can bring it to its knees will be mistaken,’’ Mr Davutoglu said. Turkey insists the plane violated its airspace despite repeated warnings. The shoot-down, the first time a Nato country has downed a Russian plane in more than half a century, sparked a bitter falling out between the two nations, which had robust economic ties.
Russia has retaliated by deploying long-range air defense missile systems to its base in Syria, 50km south of Turkish border. It also slammed an array of economic sanctions on Turkey, including a ban on imports of fruit and vegetables and tourism packages. Russia scrapped talks on a pipeline through Turkey to export Russian natural gas to Europe.
Moscow says its warplanes have been targeting terrorist groups near the Syrian-Turkish border, while Ankara says the Russian airstrikes aimed at moderate militant groups made of ethnic Turks who oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. The militants shot and killed the downed plane’s pilot while he was descending on parachute and also killed a Russian marine involved in rescuing the plane’s co-pilot.
“Neither our conscience, nor our history, nor our morals could have allowed [the plane] to bomb innocent people by violating [our border],’’ Mr Davutoglu said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused Turkey of a “treacherous war crime” and vowed to make Turkey “feel sorry’’ for its actions.