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Putin
approves economic sanctions against Turkey following downing of
Russian warplane
RT,
28
November, 2015
Russian
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree imposing a package of
economic sanctions against Turkey following its downing of a Russian
Su-24 bomber in Syria. The measures include banning several Turkish
organizations and the import of certain goods.
A
decree on "measures providing the national security of the
Russian Federation and the protection of its citizens against
criminal and other unlawful acts, and on imposing special economic
measures in relation to Turkish Republic" was signed on
Saturday, the Kremlin press service said.
Under
the decree, the import of certain products originating from Turkey
will be temporarily banned or restricted.
A
number of Turkish organizations operating in Russia will also be
restricted
Employers
in Russia will be prohibited from hiring Turkish nationals for work
starting January 1, 2016.
The
ban will touch upon only new workers, the decree said, adding that
employees who already officially hired as of December 31, 2015 will
not fall subject to the sanctions.
The
president has directed the government to introduce a ban on
charter flights between Russia and Turkey. Russian travel agencies
have been advised to stop selling tours to Turkey, the Kremlin
announced.
The
government has also been tasked with enhancing security control at
Russian ports in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea. The illegal presence
and movement of Turkish vessels near to the sea ports must be
prevented, the decree said.
Bringing
Turkish products into Russia for personal use will not be restricted,
the decree said.
The
visa-free regime for Turkish nationals traveling to Russia will be
suspended starting from 2016, the decree signed by the Russian leader
says.
It
will not affect those who have residence permits, as well as Turkish
diplomats working in Turkish embassies and consulates on the
territory of Russia, and their families.
A
list of contracts not to be affected by the new economic measures
will be compiled by the Cabinet, the Kremlin said in its Saturday
statement.
The
cooling of relations between the two countries was prompted by the
downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber jet by a Turkish F-16 fighter at
the Syrian border on Tuesday. As the plane was hit and went down in
Syria, the two pilots ejected, but only one pilot was later rescued
by the Russian forces. Another serviceman, Captain Sergey Rumyantsev
was killed, with a rebel Turkmen brigade claiming they shot him to
death while he was still parachuting.
Relations
between Moscow and Ankara have been in decline ever since. On
Saturday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement advising
its citizens against all non-urgent travel to Russia. Meanwhile, many
businesses in Turkey have expressed fears Russian sanctions might
badly hit the Turkish economy, affecting its trade and tourism
industries. According to Russian Minister of Economic Development
Aleksey Ulyukaev, the Turkish Stream project to deliver Russian
natural gas to Turkey, and the construction
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed “sadness” over a
recent move by Turkey’s military to shoot down a Russian fighter
jet near the Syrian border.
Erdogan
said on Saturday that he regretted the November 24 downing of the
Su-24M fighter jet, which Turkish officials had accused of violating
the Turkish airspace.
"We
are truly saddened by this incident," Erdogan said. "We
wish it hadn't happened as such, but unfortunately such a thing has
happened. I hope that something like this doesn't occur again."
Russia
dismisses Ankara’s claims and says the fighter jet was downed in
the Syrian airspace, where the Russian air force has been carrying
out combat sorties against Takfiri terrorists since September 30 upon
a request by the Syrian government.
“This
incident upset us greatly. I really hope this will not happen again,”
Erdogan stated.
The
Turkish president had on Friday warned Russia “not to play with
fire,” in reference to Moscow’s potential retaliatory moves over
the incident, which may include an array of economic and military
sanctions.
Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that “Turkey’s reactions
to the incident… reminds of the Theatre of the Absurd.”
During
the Saturday address, Erdogan urged Russia to leave the door open for
a mutual settlement of the dispute.
“We
shall discuss this issue and find a solution. On Monday, Paris will
host the international climate summit, this could be a chance to
restore our relations with Russia,” Erdogan said, adding,
“Confrontation will not make anyone happy. As Russia is important
for Turkey, Turkey is important for Russia. We cannot remove each
other from the horizon.”
In
response to the Tuesday incident, Russia has imposed restrictions on
tourist travel with Turkey, while a large number of Turkish trucks
are left stranded at the Russian border. The Russian Defense Ministry
has also suspended all military agreements with Turkey.
The
Turkish Foreign Ministry on Saturday said it is preparing travel
alert for citizens willing to go to Russia
Earlier
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed “sadness” over a
recent move by Turkey’s military to shoot down a Russian fighter
jet near the Syrian border.
Erdogan
said on Saturday that he regretted the November 24 downing of the
Su-24M fighter jet, which Turkish officials had accused of violating
the Turkish airspace.
"We
are truly saddened by this incident," Erdogan said. "We
wish it hadn't happened as such, but unfortunately such a thing has
happened. I hope that something like this doesn't occur again."
Russia
dismisses Ankara’s claims and says the fighter jet was downed in
the Syrian airspace, where the Russian air force has been carrying
out combat sorties against Takfiri terrorists since September 30 upon
a request by the Syrian government.
“This
incident upset us greatly. I really hope this will not happen again,”
Erdogan stated.
The
Turkish president had on Friday warned Russia “not to play with
fire,” in reference to Moscow’s potential retaliatory moves over
the incident, which may include an array of economic and military
sanctions.
Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that “Turkey’s reactions
to the incident… reminds of the Theatre of the Absurd.”
During
the Saturday address, Erdogan urged Russia to leave the door open for
a mutual settlement of the dispute.
“We
shall discuss this issue and find a solution. On Monday, Paris will
host the international climate summit, this could be a chance to
restore our relations with Russia,” Erdogan said, adding,
“Confrontation will not make anyone happy. As Russia is important
for Turkey, Turkey is important for Russia. We cannot remove each
other from the horizon.”
In
response to the Tuesday incident, Russia has imposed restrictions on
tourist travel with Turkey, while a large number of Turkish trucks
are left stranded at the Russian border. The Russian Defense Ministry
has also suspended all military agreements with Turkey.
The
Turkish Foreign Ministry on Saturday said it is preparing travel
alert for citizens willing to go to Russia
Prominent
Kurdish lawyer shot dead in southeast Turkey
The
president of the bar association in southeastern Diyarbakir province
has been shot dead by unidentified gunmen while giving a public
speech.
A
campaigner for Kurdish rights, Tahir Elci had been criticized for
challenging Turkey's official stance of calling the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) a terrorist organization.
Elci
died of gunshots to the head, hospital sources confirmed.
After
making comments about PKK on CNN Turk TV in October, Elci was
detained. He was subsequently released and had been awaiting trial.
The
killing took place while Tahir Elci was making a statement to the
media. According to the state Anadolu news agency, it was Kurdish
insurgents that opened fire, killing Elci, as well as a police
officer, and injuring three other people, among them correspondents
of the leading Turkish media organizations – the Anatolia and Dogan
news agencies.
Two
policemen were also killed in the attack, officials said, adding that
one officer had been shot dead on the spot while another died of his
injuries later in hospital.
A
gun battle erupted after gunfire was opened at police from an
unidentified car, Interior Minister Efkan Ala told the media. The
official did not mention if anyone had been detained, Reuters
reported.
The
attack in which Elci was killed might be "an assassination,"
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday in a televised
speech, Hurriyet Daily News reported. But "there are two
possibilities," the PM added, saying that the other might be an
accident, with the lawyer having been caught in an exchange of fire
between security forces and attackers.
A
curfew was declared in the region.
Pro-Kurdish
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) described Elci's killing as a
"planned assassination," Reuters reported citing HDP's
statement, which added: "In the place left by Tahir Elci,
thousands more Tahir Elcis will carry on the work in the struggle for
law and justice."
Tahir
Elci studied law in Europe and took part in many high profile cases
in the Turkish courts. The lawyer was among the founding members of
many human rights and non-governmental organizations.
“The
moment the statement ended, the crowd was sprayed with bullets,”
Reuters cited Omer Tastan, a local official from the pro-Kurdish HDP
party, as saying.
“A
single bullet struck Elci in the head,” Tastan said, adding that 11
people were also wounded in the incident.
Dogan
News Agency recorded a video of the incident, showing a group of
gunmen hiding behind the minaret of a nearby mosque close to where
Elci was making his statement. When he finished speaking, the group
opened fire at the lawyer and people standing beside him.
“A
person ran towards Tahir Elci, fired and then started to run away,”
Dogan news agency’s reporter Felat Bozarslan recalls.
The
PKK demands greater autonomy for Turkey's Kurds and is classified as
a terrorist organization in Turkey and the US.
After
the ceasefire agreement between the PKK and Turkish security forces
ended in July, hundreds of people were killed in terror acts and
clashes in addition to the estimated 40,000 who have died since the
Kurds started their armed struggle for autonomy in 1984.
American
officials have denied that the Russian military had given the details
of its downed jet’s flight plan to the Pentagon before the aircraft
was shot down by Turkey inside Syrian territory.
The
Reuters news agency quoted two unnamed US officials as saying on
Friday that Russia had not passed along the kind of granular
operational details that were suggested by Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
TEHRAN
(FNA)- A Syrian rebel commander who boasted of killing a Russian
pilot after Turkey downed the Russian jet on Tuesday appeared to be
Turkish ultranationalist and a son of former mayor in one of Turkish
provinces.
Alparslan
Celik, deputy commander of a Syrian Turkmen brigade turned out to be
the son of a mayor of a Keban municipality in Turkey’s Elazig
province, RT reported.
He
also turned out to be the member of The Grey Wolves ultranationalist
group, members of which have carried out scores of political murders
since 1970s.
Celic
came under spotlight after he announced that as the two Russian
pilots descended by parachute after the Su-24 jet was downed by
Turkish military, both were shot dead by Turkmen forces on Tuesday.
A
graphic video posted earlier on social media purported to show a
Russian pilot lying on the ground surrounded by a group of armed
militants.
Turkish intelligence chief: ISIS is a reality and we must stop Putin from crushing the Islamic revolution (Updated)
 |
Hakan
Fidan
|
AWD
News
Posted October 18, 2015
Turkish intelligence chief: Putin's intervention in Syria is against Islam and international law, ISIS is a reality and we are optimistic about the future
Ankara--- Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization, known by the MİT acronym, has drawn a lot of attention and criticism for his controversial comments about ISIS.
Mr. Hakan Fidan, Turkish President's staunchest ally, condemned Russian military intervention in Syria, accusing Moscow of trying to 'smother' Syria's Islamist revolution and serious breach of United Nations law.
“ISIS is a reality and we have to accept that we cannot eradicate a well-organized and popular establishment such as the Islamic State; therefore I urge my western colleagues to revise their mindset about Islamic political currents, put aside their cynical mentalité and thwart Vladimir Putin's plans to crush Syrian Islamist revolutionaries,” - Anadolu News Agency quoted Mr. Fidan as saying on Sunday.
Fidan further added that in order to deal with the vast number of foreign Jihadists craving to travel to Syria, it is imperative that ISIS must set up a consulate or at least a political office in Istanbul. He underlined that it is Turkey’s firm belief to provide medical care for all injured people fleeing Russian ruthless airstrikes regardless of their political or religious affiliation.
Recently as the fierce clashes between Russian army and ISIS terrorists are raging across the war-torn Syria, countless number of ISIS injured fighters enter the Turkish territory and are being admitted in the military hospitals namely those in Hatay Province. Over the last few days, the Syrian army with the support of Russian air cover could fend off ISIS forces in strategic provinces of Homs and Hama.
Emile Hokayem, a Washington-based Middle East analyst said that Turkey's Erdoğan and his oil-rich Arab allies have dual agendas in the war on terror and as a matter of fact they are supplying the Islamist militants with weapons and money, thus Russian intervention is considered a devastating setback for their efforts to overthrow Syrian secular President Assad.
Hokayem who was speaking via Skype from Washington, D.C. highlighted the danger of Turkish-backed terrorist groups and added that what is happening in Syria cannot be categorized as a genuine and popular revolution against dictatorship but rather it is a chaos orchestrated by Erdoğan who is dreaming to revive this ancestor's infamous Ottoman Empire.
Posted October 18, 2015
Turkish intelligence chief: Putin's intervention in Syria is against Islam and international law, ISIS is a reality and we are optimistic about the future
Ankara--- Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization, known by the MİT acronym, has drawn a lot of attention and criticism for his controversial comments about ISIS.
Mr. Hakan Fidan, Turkish President's staunchest ally, condemned Russian military intervention in Syria, accusing Moscow of trying to 'smother' Syria's Islamist revolution and serious breach of United Nations law.
“ISIS is a reality and we have to accept that we cannot eradicate a well-organized and popular establishment such as the Islamic State; therefore I urge my western colleagues to revise their mindset about Islamic political currents, put aside their cynical mentalité and thwart Vladimir Putin's plans to crush Syrian Islamist revolutionaries,” - Anadolu News Agency quoted Mr. Fidan as saying on Sunday.
Fidan further added that in order to deal with the vast number of foreign Jihadists craving to travel to Syria, it is imperative that ISIS must set up a consulate or at least a political office in Istanbul. He underlined that it is Turkey’s firm belief to provide medical care for all injured people fleeing Russian ruthless airstrikes regardless of their political or religious affiliation.
Recently as the fierce clashes between Russian army and ISIS terrorists are raging across the war-torn Syria, countless number of ISIS injured fighters enter the Turkish territory and are being admitted in the military hospitals namely those in Hatay Province. Over the last few days, the Syrian army with the support of Russian air cover could fend off ISIS forces in strategic provinces of Homs and Hama.
Emile Hokayem, a Washington-based Middle East analyst said that Turkey's Erdoğan and his oil-rich Arab allies have dual agendas in the war on terror and as a matter of fact they are supplying the Islamist militants with weapons and money, thus Russian intervention is considered a devastating setback for their efforts to overthrow Syrian secular President Assad.
Hokayem who was speaking via Skype from Washington, D.C. highlighted the danger of Turkish-backed terrorist groups and added that what is happening in Syria cannot be categorized as a genuine and popular revolution against dictatorship but rather it is a chaos orchestrated by Erdoğan who is dreaming to revive this ancestor's infamous Ottoman Empire.
*In
2014, voice recordings, where Hakan Fidan, foreign minister
Davutoğlu, Deputy Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Yasar Güler, and other
military personnel discusses a potential false flag incursion into
Syria, was leaked to YouTube and shared across Twitter. The event
resulted in the Turkish government blocking access to Twitter, then
YouTube, and finally the DNS servers of Google DNS and OpenDNS.[10]
In the voice recording, he is heard saying, to a military
personnel, "... [i]f legitimacy [of a possible incursion into
Syria] is an issue, I can simply send a few men there [across the
Syria-Turkey border] and have them launch missiles over to us.
Legitimacy is not a problem. Legitimacy can be manufactured."
Seymour Hersh later linked what was said in this leaked meeting
with CIA-Erdoğan dealings on Syria
Both
the American and Turkish air forces halted their strikes on Syrian
territory around the time Russia deployed S-400 air defense complexes
at the Khmeimim airbase, from which it stages its own incursions
against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
A
spokesperson of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent
Resolve (CJTF-OIR) told Sputnik on Friday that the absence of anti-IS
coalition airstrikes “has nothing to do with the S400 deployment”
in Syria.
Syrian Army Fired Upon by Mortars From Turkish Territory – Spokesman
Turkey fired a number of mortar bombs toward Syrian army positions, the Syrian army spokesman said Saturday.
"Last
night, there was intense mortar fire on Syrian government
forces' positions fire from the Mount Jebel Aqra area, which is
on the Turkish side," Brigadier General Ali Mayhoub said
during a press briefing.
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