Russia-Turkey feud escalates with threats of economic sanctions, retaliation.
Moscow imposes economic sanctions as Turkey vows same response to incursions
ANKARA, Turkey — A tug-of-war over a Russian warplane downed by a Turkish fighter jet at the border with Syria escalated Thursday, with Moscow drafting a slew of economic sanctions against Turkey and the Turkish president defiantly declaring that his military will shoot down any new intruder.
The spat reflected a clash of ambitions of two strongman leaders, neither of whom appeared willing to back down and search for a compromise.
Turkey shot down the Russian Su-24 military jet Tuesday, insisting it had violated its airspace despite repeated warnings. The incident marked the first time in half a century that a NATO member shot down a Russian plane, raising the threat of a military confrontation between the alliance and Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the Turkish action as a “treacherous stab in the back,” and insisted that the plane was downed over Syrian territory in violation of international law.
“Until that moment, we haven’t heard a clear apology from Turkey’s top political leadership, or an offer to compensate for the damage or a promise to punish the criminals,” he said at the Kremlin while receiving credentials from several ambassadors. “It gives an impression that the Turkish leadership is deliberately driving Russian-Turkish relations into a deadlock, and we regret that.”
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in no mood to apologize, and warned that Ankara would act the same way against another intrusion.
“Faced with the same violation today, Turkey would give the same response,” Erdogan said. “It’s the country that carried out the violation which should question itself and take measures to prevent it from happening again, not the country that was subjected to a violation.”
Erdogan said Turkey had not specifically targeted Russia when it shot down the plane, saying it was “an automatic response” in line with its rules of engagement.
He spoke on a more conciliatory note in separate comments on France 24 television. Asked if Turkey would still have targeted the plane if it positively knew it was Russian, he said: “If we had determined it, the warnings would have been different.”
Speaking later in the Kremlin after the talks with French President Francois Hollande, Putin said he was sorry to hear that Erdogan sees no need to apologize.
“For us, Turkey was not just a neighbor, but a friendly state, almost an ally,” he said. “It’s very sad to see all of it being destroyed so thoughtlessly and brutally.”
The Russian and Turkish leaders are often compared to each other. Both are populist, frequently crack down on critics and often revert to anti-Western rhetoric. They had enjoyed close relations until recently, despite differences over Syria, and regularly exchanged visits.
Turkey has released audio recordings of what it says are the Turkish military’s repeated warnings to the pilot of a Russian bomber before it was shot down at the border with Syria.
The recordings, made available to The Associated Press on Thursday, indicate the plane was warned several times that it was approaching Turkey’s airspace and asked to change course, but there is no indication of a Russian reply. In the recordings, a voice is heard saying in broken English: “This is Turkish Air Force speaking on guard. You are approaching Turkish airspace. Change your heading south immediately.” The voice gets increasingly agitated as the warnings appear to go unnoticed.
The audio that was released only involved Turkish warnings and no replies by a Russian pilot. It was not clear if Turkey had received any replies from the Russian pilots but did not release them; if the Russian pilots never replied to the warnings; or if the Russians even heard the warnings.
A Russian airman who survived the shoot-down and was later rescued by the Syrian and Russian commando, denied veering into Turkey’s airspace “even for a single second.” Turkey insists the plane was in its airspace for 17 seconds.
Capt. Konstantin Murakhtin also said he and his crewmate, who was killed by ground fire after bailing out, hadn’t heard any Turkish warnings. The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the audio recording released by Ankara as a fake.
Erdogan accused Russia of using its declared goal to fight the Islamic State group in Syria as a pretext to target opposition groups in order to shore up Syrian President Bashar Assad.