Ankara: The patience of Turkey has limits

The reaction of the Russian warship to the Turkish seiner was exaggerated, and Ankara’s patience has a limit. According to RBC, this was stated by the head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Mevlut Chavushoglu. "Russia and Türkiye, of course, should restore those trust that were before, but our patience has a limit," he added.

According to Chavushoglu, Russia has already put itself in a "absurd" position when Vladimir Putin said that Türkiye shot down a Russian plane, trying to protect the supply of oil of the Islamic State. “No one believed in it,” said Chavushoglu.

The statement of Chavushoglu was the first official commentary of Ankara regarding the incident with Seiner and the Russian patrol ship.

The day before, the Ministry of Defense said that the Russian patrol ship "Smaching" was fired by the Turkish seiner Geçicailer Balıkçılık in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. The incident occurred on the morning of Sunday 22 kilometers from the coast of the Greek Island of Lemnos. According to the Ministry of Defense, at 8:03 local time (9:03 Moscow time), the shift service of the “Smaching” was anchored about 1 kilometer from the ship of the Turkish fishing vessel. The Seiner claimed to be approaching the Russian ship.

When the distance between the two vessels decreased to about 600 meters, continues the Ministry of Defense, "in order to prevent the collision of ships in the direction of the Turkish vessel at a distance of guaranteed disposal, small arms were used." Immediately after this, the department says, the seiner sharply changed the course and, without getting in touch with the Russians, passed by the "smittering".

In connection with the incident of the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, Anatoly Antonov urgently called Rear Admiral Akhmet Gunesh to the department of the Turkish naval attache. "The Turkish military diplomat made a tough idea of ​​the possible harmful consequences of the reckless actions of the official Ankara in relation to the Russian military contingent, performing the tasks of combating international terrorism in Syria," the department said .

Relations between Moscow and Ankara worsened at the end of November, after Turkish aviation shot down the Russian Su-24 fighter, which violated the boundaries of the country's airspace. Vladimir Putin accused Turkey of trade with the Islamic State; Economic sanctions were imposed against Ankara. In December, Turkish students began to unreasonably expel from Russian universities.

On December 5, a man with a portable anti-aircraft missile system in his hands was seen on board the Russian large landing ship "Caesar Konikov", passing through the Bosphorus. The Turkish Foreign Ministry regarded this as a provocation; The ambassador of Russia in Ankara was called to the ministry and warned against such actions.