Turkey ‘crossed the line’ with downing: Lavrov

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MOSCOW, Nov 27, (Agencies): Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said that Ankara has crossed the line by shooting down a Russian warplane this week and warned the incident could severely undermine Turkey’s interests. “We believe that the Turkish leadership has crossed the line of what is acceptable,” Lavrov said at the start of talks with Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Moscow.

Ankara “risks putting Turkey in a most severe situation, with respect to both its longterm national interests and the situation in the region,” he said. Moscow is reeling after a Russian warplane carrying out strikes in Syria was shot down on the Turkish-Syrian border on Tuesday — an incident President Vladimir Putin described as a “treachery” and a “stab in the back.” Ankara has argued that it did not realise the plane, which it said had violated Turkish airspace, was Russian, and claimed it issued multiple warnings to the pilot to change course.

The incident led to the death of two Russian officers — Moscow’s first combat deaths since it launched a bombing campaign in Syria on September 30 — including the pilot and a special forces soldier who participated in a rescue operation.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday sought to ease tensions with Moscow, calling for unity against the Islamic State group and arguing the shooting of the plane was not an act against Russia. The Kremlin however did not seem in a conciliatory mood.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warned Russia not to “play with fire” on Friday, but added he did not want to harm relations with Moscow, comments that look more likely to inflame than quell the dispute over a downed Russian bomber this week. 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 Erdogan has dismissed as “emotional” and “unfitting”. “We very sincerely recommend to Russia not to play with fire,” 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.”

Erdogan said he may speak with Russian President Putin at a climate summit in Paris next week, a discussion that would be welcomed by the United States and EU, both of which fear the spat has distracted from the battle against Islamic State militants in Syria.

Putin has so far refused to contact Erdogan because Ankara does not want to apologise for the downing of the jet, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Friday. Erdogan said Turkey downed the jet as a result of what he called the automatic enforecement of the rules of engagement.

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