Turkey says its patience with Russia has a limit: Newspaper
Date
12/14/2015 6:08:28 AM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) File photo of Turkey's foreign minister MevlutCavusoglu. Reuters
ROME: Turkey's foreign minister MevlutCavusoglusaidAnkara's patience with Russia "has a limit" after Moscow's"exaggerated" reaction to a weekend naval incident between thetwo countries an Italian newspaper reported on Monday.
A Russian destroyer fired warning shots at a Turkish vesselin the Aegean on Sunday to avoid a collision and summoned theTurkish military attache over the incident..
"Ours was only a fishing boat it seems to me that thereaction of the Russian naval ship was exaggerated" MevlutCavusoglu told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in aninterview.
"Russia and Turkey certainly have to re-establish therelations of trust that we have always had but our patience hasa limit" Cavusoglu said.
The incident is likely to heighten tensions between the twonations who are at odds over Syria and Turkey's downing of aRussian warplane last month.
Cavusoglu said Russia had already "put itself in aridiculous position" with accusations by its President VladimirPutin that Turkey had shot down the jet to protect oil suppliesfrom Islamic State.
"No-one believed it" he said.
He also criticised Russia's military intervention in Syriasaying it was aimed at propping up the regime of PresidentBashar al-Assad not combating Islamic State.
"Unfortunately Russia is not in Syria to fight terrorists"he said adding that only 8 percent of its air strikes had beenaimed at Islamic State while 92 percent were against othergroups hostile to Assad.
Cavusoglu also said air strikes were not sufficient todefeat Islamic State and soldiers on the ground were necessaryaccording to the interview.
Reuters