Meeting between Turkish & Russian foreign ministers takes place in Belgrade

Following the political crisis due to downing of the Russian jet fighter by Turkish warplanes in Syria, Turkey and Russia had the first meeting to overhaul the deteriorated relations between two countries. Ties between Ankara and Moscow had been badly damaged after a Russian bomber SU-24 was shot down by a Turkish F-16 along the Syrian-Turkish border, allegedly for violating Turkish airspace. The Russian plane had crashed in northern Syria and Oleg Peshkov (Russian crew) was killed by Turkmen groups while descending with a parachute. Moscow protested Ankara and promised serious consequences to Russian-Turkish relations, including economic sanctions. Putin called the destruction of the plane “a stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorists.”

Two ministers met in person on an occasion where they attended the Meeting for Security and Co-operation in Europe, in Belgrade. Turkey has been spending efforts to reduce the tension since the downing of a Russian jet on Nov. 24 and said meeting was the first face to face contact since then

Soon before the meeting Tayyip Erdoğan had called Russian President Vladimir Putin and the call was not taken by Putin who said Turkey has yet to apologize for shooting down the jet on the Syrian border. Another attempt by Erdoğan to have a phone conversation with Putin on the day of the Russian jet’s downing had also been rejected.

In the meantime the Russian side had escalated a battle of words over allegations of illicit oil trade involving ISIS and Turkey. At that point Turkish PM had interfered to say “I am making a call to Putin. First of all, let’s deescalate tension between our two countries. Let’s meet on grounds of conversation instead of mutual accusations. Then, we can share information again on the essence of the incident and how it occurred” speaking at a conference on Dec. 3.

As Ankara has been trying to defuse tension, Çavuşoğlu extended condolences to Lavrov in a telephone conversation just before the Russian foreign minister canceled a visit to Istanbul scheduled for Nov. 25.

Following the meeting the comment made by LAVROV did not sound to be fully promising as he stated he had heard not much new from the Turkish foreign minister whereas his Turkish counterpart seemed to be much more hopeful about the improvement of relations between two countries.

SOURCE: MEDIA