REUTERS: Russia
threatened economic retaliation against Turkey on Thursday and said it was
still awaiting a reasonable explanation for the shooting down of its warplane,
but Turkey dismissed the threats as "emotional" and
"unfitting."
In an escalating war of words, President Tayyip
Erdogan responded to Russian accusations that Turkey has been buying oil and
gas from Islamic State in Syria by accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
and his backers, which include Moscow, of being the real source of the group's
financial and military power.
The shooting down of the jet by the Turkish air force
on Tuesday was one of the most serious clashes between a NATO member and
Russia, and further complicated international efforts to battle Islamic State
militants.
World leaders have urged both sides to avoid
escalation. In an apparent attempt to cool the dispute - and appeal to Western
countries - Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a letter to
Britain's Times newspaper that Ankara would work with its allies and Russia to
"calm tensions".
Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
ordered his government to draw up measures that would include freezing some
joint investment projects and restricting food imports from Turkey.
Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Moscow could
put limits on flights to and from Turkey, halt preparations for a joint free
trade zone, and restrict high-profile projects including the Turk Stream gas
pipeline and a $20 billion nuclear power plant Russia is building in Turkey.
Russia's defense ministry meanwhile said it had
suspended all cooperation with the Turkish military, including a hotline set up
to share information on Russian air strikes in Syria, the TASS news agency
reported.
"We are strategic partners ... 'Joint projects
may be halted, ties could be cut'? Are such approaches fitting for
politicians?," Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.
"First the politicians and our militaries should
sit down and talk about where errors were made and then focus on overcoming
those errors on both sides. But instead, if we make emotional statements like
this, that wouldn't be right."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was still
awaiting a reasonable answer from Ankara on why it downed the fighter jet.
Moscow insists it never left Syrian air space, but Ankara says it crossed the
border despite repeated warnings.
The Turkish foreign ministry said diplomatic missions
and Turkish business interests in Russia had come under attack and said
Russia's ambassador in Ankara had been summoned in protest.
Erdogan said the Russian jet was shot down as an
"automatic reaction" to the violation of Turkish air space, in line
with standing orders given to the military.
Those instructions were a separate issue to
disagreements with Russia over Syria policy, he said, adding Ankara would
continue to support moderate rebels in Syria and Turkmen fighters battling
President Assad's forces.
Erdogan told that Russia, not Turkey, should be the
one to apologize for the incident. And in an interview with France 24, he said
he had called Putin after the jet was shot down but that the Russian leader had
not yet called him back.
Medvedev on Wednesday
alleged that Turkish officials were benefiting from Islamic State oil sales,
while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was no secret that
"terrorists" use Turkish territory.
"Shame on you. It's clear where Turkey buys its
oil and gas ... Those who claim we are buying oil from Daesh like this must
prove their claims. Nobody can slander this country," Erdogan said, using
an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
"If you are seeking the source of weaponry and
financial power of Daesh, the first place to look is the Assad regime and
countries that act with it," he said.
Moscow says its military involvement in Syria is aimed
at battling terrorist groups including Islamic State, casting the campaign to a
supportive Russian public as a moral crusade that must be completed despite
obstruction from elsewhere.
Turkey and its allies say Russia's real aim is to prop
up its ally Assad and that it has been bombing moderate opposition groups in
areas of Syria like Latakia, where the jet was downed, and where there is
little or no Islamic State presence.
Russian forces have shown no sign of backing down,
launching a heavy bombardment against insurgent-held areas in Latakia on
Wednesday, near where the jet crashed.
A Reuters correspondent on the Turkish side of the
border saw rockets and tank shells being fired from government-controlled
western Latakia eastwards into rebel-held territory, sending plumes of smoke
rising from the wooded hillsides.
Turkey's action
infuriated Russia, but Moscow's response has been carefully calibrated. There
is little sign it wants a military escalation, or to jeopardize its main
objective in the region: to rally international support for its view on how the
conflict in Syria should be resolved.
But it clearly wants to punish Turkey economically.
The head of Russia's tourism agency, Rostourism, said
cooperation with Turkey would "obviously" be halted. At least two
large Russian tour operators had already said they would stop selling packages
to Turkey after Russian officials advised holidaymakers against traveling to
its resorts.
Russians are second only to Germans in terms of the
numbers visiting Turkey, bringing in an estimated $4 billion a year in tourism
revenues, which Turkey needs to help fund its gaping current account deficit.
Medvedev meanwhile said Russia may impose
restrictions on food imports within days, having already increased checks of
Turkish agriculture products, its first public move to curb trade.
Moscow banned most Western food imports in 2014 when
Western countries imposed sanctions on Russia over its role in the Ukraine
crisis, leading to supply disruptions as retailers had to find new suppliers
and galloping inflation.
The row has also put a brake on new wheat deals
between Russia, one of the world's largest wheat exporters, and Turkey, the
largest buyer of Russian wheat.
