Turkey risks to face a complicated situation in the region, the country’s leaders have crossed the line of acceptable, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the beginning of talks with the Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem on Friday.
Lavrov also thanked Damascus sincerely for the rescue of the Russian pilot, the news agency Tass reports.
“I do not think we now have reasons to discuss our perception of the Turkish provocation against our jet,” the minister said. “Our perception has been presented in most details, first of all by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.”
“We believe the Turkish leaders have crossed the line of the acceptable,” Lavrov said. “They risk bringing Turkey into a most complicated situation — both from the point of view of long-term national interests and from the point of view of the situation in the region.”
Turkey’s attack on the Russian warplane was an unprecedented act of aggression, Syria offers condolences to the families of the dead servicemen, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Friday ahead of his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“I want to convey our condolences to the families of the servicemen who died as a result the unprecedented, provocative act of aggression by Turkey,” he said.
Muallem added that he agreed with the remarks of the Russian President Vladimir Putin that such actions were a stab in the back. “We have said for five years now that Turkey helps to support terrorists for ideological reasons, stabbing us in the back every day over a span of five years,” he said.
Russia Suspends Visa-Free Regime With Turkey – Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow will suspend the visa-free regime with Turkey starting January 1, 2016.
Lavrov said during a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem that Russia would suspend the visa-free regime with Turkey.
“The Russian government reached a decision to suspend the free-visa regime between Russia and the Turkish Republic. The decision will come into effect on January 1 2016,” Lavrov said at a press-conference after talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.
The Russian minister added that threats coming from Turkey were “not artificial.”
“On the contrary, these threats are very real, and we are saying this with full responsibility,” he underscored.
The move comes as Russia started to question Ankara’s commitment to the fight against terrorism following the downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber on Tuesday by the Turkish Air Force over Syria.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the incident would negatively affect all aspects of relations between Moscow and Ankara and recommended Russians to refrain from visiting Turkey. Cooperation in the tourism industry between Moscow and Ankara may be stopped, the Russian Federal Tourism Agency said.
Source: sputniknews
Terrorist State of Turkey fighter jets violate Greek national air space today
A formation of six Turkish fighter jets violated Greek national air space in the northeastern Aegean Thursday, Greek defense officials said.
The Turkish jets entered into Greece’s national air space on one occasion, the defense officials said, adding that two of the aircraft were armed and that one dogfight occurred. In all cases the Turkish jets were chased off by Greek aircraft.
The violations follow a peak in tensions between Turkey and Russia after Turkish fighter jets shot a Russian military jet near the Syrian border.
Turkey: Tense wait continues in Kilis after Russian air strikes hit aid convoy near Turkey border
The trucks are waiting at the Öncüpınar border gate with Syria in southern Kilis province. (Photo: Cihan)
Hundreds of trucks drivers wait tensely near the Öncüpınar border gate with Syria in southern Kilis province after seven people were killed and 10 were wounded in Russian strikes that hit a convoy taking supplies to refugees in the Azaz area of Halep province in Syria on Wednesday.
Video footage taken at a crossing on the Syrian side of the border of Turkey’s Kilis province on Wednesday showed burning trucks after what aid workers have said was an apparent air strike.
The head of the rebel-run border crossing on the Syrian side said separately that air strikes hit a garage for commercial trailer trucks, killing three people.
“Our teams helped to extinguish the fire … The trucks do not belong to us and there is no information on who bombed them,” Mustafa Özbek, an İstanbul-based official from the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (İHH), told Reuters.
The aid worker who filmed the aftermath initially said it appeared to be that the aid trucks were targeted. It was not immediately clear if the strikes were carried out by Russian or Syrian warplanes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) had reported earlier on Thursday that there were intensive Russian airstrikes in Azaz.
Syrian activists: There have been fresh airstrikes near Turkish border
Two groups that track the war — the UK-based SOHR and the Local Coordination Committees — say air strikes hit the highway linking the border town of Azaz with the Bab al-Salameh border crossing to Turkey.
They had no immediate word on casualties. The SOHR has said the warplanes that carried out Thursday’s airstrikes were Russian.
The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, the main Syrian opposition group, condemned the bombing of Azaz, saying it targeted trucks carrying aid supplies.
Farewell Time: Turkey is ‘Problem Child’ NATO Needs to Ditch “ties with Islamic extremists”
With the changing times and different threats the international community is currently facing, Turkey should be removed from NATO, the US magazine American Thinker said.
Turkey’s admission into NATO in 1952 had a clear military purpose — the country’s membership was supposed to help the Western alliance to avoid Soviet expansion in the region. From the Western point of view, it might have been the right decision to make during the Cold War era.
However, right now NATO doesn’t need Turkey and it’s time to ditch Ankara, especially after finding out that the Turkish government has ties with Islamic extremists in the Middle East, the US newspaper said.
“Old adversaries need to be re-evaluated, as do old ‘allies’ — which were never likely allies to begin with… The time has come: Turkey should be removed from NATO,” the American Thinker reported.
Turkey has always been “the problem child in NATO,” the magazine said. The Turkish government has been using its NATO membership as an effective tool to achieve its own political goals, which don’t coincide with NATO’s interests.
In 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus, causing a split in NATO, which resulted in Greece withdrawing its forces from the alliance until 1980. Then in 2012, after repeated and deliberate airspace violations the Syrian Air Force shot down a Turkish plane causing NATO unwanted headaches.
According to the American Thinker, Turkey has always had Islamic ties due to its complex history. Under the protection of its NATO membership, Turkey managed to increase its influence in the region to the point that it supported ISIL by carrying out illegal oil sales with the terrorist organization, the US magazine said.
Following the rise of ISIL and a series of terrorist attacks in Europe, the EU and the United States need to defeat ISIL. NATO can’t afford to have a country that “pretends to be a friend while stabbing [the West] in the back” and that’s why Turkey needs to be dropped from the Western alliance, the American Thinker explained.
Instead, NATO should find a common ground with Russia since both parties are currently involved in the fight against Islamic extremism.
The Russian Su-24 Fencer bomber was shot down by two Turkish F-16s Tuesday morning while conducting operations over Syria.
One of the pilots from the downed Su-24 was rescued by the Syrian Army Tuesday morning. The other pilot was killed by fire from the ground after ejecting from the plane. A Russian naval infantry soldier also lost his life after an Mi-8 chopper was downed during a rescue operation.
The Turkish president said that Ankara acted in line with its sovereign right to respond to threats, claiming that the Russian jet had violated Turkish airspace. However, flight data released by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows that the Su-24s never entered Turkey, and were attacked while performing legitimate maneuvers over Syria.
Source: sputniknews
Breaking News: Russia Cuts All Military Ties With Turkey
(sputniknews.com) All military contacts with Turkey have been cut following the downing of Russia’s Su-24 military jet, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
“Today, in accordance with a previously made decision, all cooperation channels have been cut between the Russian Defense Ministry and the Turkish Armed Forces,” ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov told reporters.
“This concerns all ties, not just the so-called hotline that was launched in order to avoid possible air incidents during the destruction of terrorist infrastructure in Syria,” he added.
The decision has been made after Turkish fighter jets on Tuesday had shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber, which had been taking part in Russia’s anti-terror campaign in Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a “stab in the back, carried out against us by accomplices of terrorists.”
Iraq: Russian plane: Turkey may cause war
Baghdad, Nov. 26, 2015 (AFP) – Iraqi Vice President Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to lead the world on the brink of conflict after the crash of a Russian fighter-bomber shot down by the Turkish army.
“Erdogan says that the Russian aircraft entered its airspace for several seconds. He forgets that its aircraft violate Iraqi airspace and Syrian daily “responded in a statement Maliki, an influential Shiite figure who was prime minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014.
“The aggressive policies and double standards Erdogan measures threaten to lead the world into a new war,” he added. Ankara says that Russian fighter-bomber shot dead Tuesday by two Turkish F-16 fighter was in Turkish airspace, while Moscow denounces a “planned provocation” and ensures he was hit in the Syrian sky.
Baghdad has accused Turkey of having played a key role in the emergence of the Islamic State Sunni extremist group that has taken hold in the last two years large areas in Iraq and Syria.
Thursday, November 26, 2015,
Ara © armenews.com
Ara © armenews.com
Armenia condemns Turkey who shot down a Russian plane
In a show of support to its main military ally, Armenia yesterday condemned Turkey who shot down a Russian military aircraft. She added that it undermines international efforts to fight against terrorist groups operating in Syria.
Ohanian, Minister of Defence, at the same time urged the international community to prevent a further escalation of Russian-Turkish tensions. Analysts say it would be dangerous for the security in Armenia.
“I think, at a time when the international community focused on the fight against international terrorism, this may be experienced as a direct blow in the direction of these efforts,” said Ohanian in what was the first Armenian reaction the incident on Tuesday near the Syrian-Turkish border.
Russian Su-24 bomber was shot by a Turkish F-16 fighter after attacking rebel forces in a Syrian area north of the Turkish border. Ankara insists that the warplane was destroyed because he had violated the airspace of Turkey, a claim strongly denied by Moscow.
Speaking a few hours after the incident, Russian President Vladimir Putin has described as a “stab in the back” led by “accomplices of terrorists” and warned that it would have “serious consequences” for Russia Relations -turques.
The incident and ensuing recriminations raised concerns about the fact that Armenia, which hosts a Russian military base deployed along its closed border with Turkey, can be drawn into a potential military confrontation between the two powers regional. Some Russian politicians and pro-government experts have called the Kremlin to strengthen this base with more advanced weapons.
The base is already equipped with 18 MiG-29 fighter jets, a similar number of attack helicopters and air defense systems S-300. A security threat because Turkey has long been the main official reason for the Russian military presence in Armenia.
According to the authority of the Civil Aviation of Armenia, the Turkish military helicopters violated the airspace of Armenia twice early October, just days after Ankara accused Russian aircraft of straying on Turkish territory Syria. Yerevan has chosen not to protest official.
Ohanian did not say if the units of the Armenian army near the border with Turkey and the Russian troops stationed in Armenia have been put on alert. “We have a business planning joint struggle with Russia and our actions we perform together as part of this planning,” he only said, remaining vague.
“We are a strategic partner of the Russian Federation,” said Ohanian. “I think we should wait and see how it evolves. World leaders will then take the appropriate decisions. “
“I think the international community must now also make efforts to prevent escalation,” he added at a joint press conference with Serbian Minister of Defence, Bratislav Gasic.
The Armenian government has been very critical à-vis the role of Turkey in the Syrian civil war. He pointed to Ankara after the Islamist rebels, including members of al-Qaeda Al Nosra Front, captured the Syrian city populated by Armenians, Kessab, and moved its 2000 inhabitants in March 2014.
Thursday, November 26, 2015,
Claire © armenews.com
Claire © armenews.com
Turkey seeking escalation on all borders Armenia and Iran– Sergey Shakaryants
Political analyst Sergey Shakaryants spoke of global politics at a meeting with reporters on Thursday.
According to him big politics is on the agenda.
“Turkish authorities are seeking escalation on different borders, including our border,” Mr Shakaryants said.
According to him, Armenia and Iran will intensify military and security cooperation while they are seeking closer ties.
As to whether the incident with the downed Russian warplane could affect Turkish-Russian relations, Mr Shakaryants said that the nuclear-power plant construction project will first of all be suspended.
“The military ties have been severed, Russians will not warn of their intention to bomb, while NATO will not intercede for Turkey,” he said.
Commenting on a bill calling for Turkey’s accountability for denying the Armenian Genocide, Mr Shakaryants said that the document passing from the Lower Chamber to the Upper Chamber and, finally to President Vladimir Putin for signing will take much time.
It could sober up Azerbaijan as Russia is well aware of which side is escalating the situation. Moreover. Azerbaijan’s reaction to the issue of the Armenian Genocide is much harsher than Turkey’s.
Armenia Must Liberate its Western Territories under Turkish ocupation, Says Russian Politician
YEREVAN (ARMENPRESS)—The head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, announced during an episode of “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov” on Russia 1TV that Armenians must be allowed to liberate their western territories.
Zhirinovsky said that, “Armenians could do that in 1918 if Moscow supported them, but it [Moscow] was on the Turkish side.”
“If we allow Armenians to liberate their western territories, they will be glad to do that,” he said.
Zhirinovsky also talked about supporting the Kurds.
“Kurds expect our support. If we tell the Kurds that we recognize their independence, their population reaches, as we know, to 20 million, and the capital is already known, it is Diyarbakır. Hence, Eastern Anatolia will cease to exist in the form we know. As a result, there will be independent Kurdistan and Great Armenia,” he said.
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