TODAY.AZ / Politics

Diplomacy wins over war rhetorics

26 November 2015 [14:35] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

The Syrian crisis poises to create new source of tension among the countries, which attempt to solve it.

An unpleasant incident with the Russian military plane which fell on Syrian air left deep trace on the land.

The Turkish Air Force shot down the Russian military planes SU-24 in its airspace on November 24. Moscow carries out anti-terror operations in Syrian territory to combat with the ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) terrorist organization.

Numerous statements on this serious incident made an impression of strong will to show how the sides were correct in their steps.

That darkened the scene for Moscow and Ankara, even with a possibility to grow to a war between Russia and Turkey. "Smell of war" was acute enough to attract concerns of world powers who called on the sides to show a restraint not to aggravate the situation.

The concerns were understandable amid the global efforts to deal with the four-year old exhausting crisis -- the incident could drive the two powerful countries to a new war, further threatening to bring devastating results for the world.

The two countries accused each other for the incident. Russia has insisted its aircraft was not in Turkish airspace and posed no threat, while Turkey said the contrary noting that it was protecting country's airspace.

Anyway, the incident did what it was expected to do since it happened.

This incident has strongly deteriorated the relations between Moscow and Ankara. The incident followed by the sharp exchange of rhetoric and acts from both sides: some in Russia even considered the recalling of the Russian ambassador to Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey has right to protect its borders.

In the meantime, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said after Russia’s warplanes violated Turkish airspace in October, Ankara warned that the intruding aircraft will be shot down if such cases repeat. “No one has the right to violate Turkey’s airspace,” he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry has suspended military contact with Turkey over the plane downing, which President Vladimir Putin called "a stab in the back."

Moscow accused Turkey’s leadership in Islamization of the country and its foreign ministry recommended its citizens to refrain from trips to Turkey. Furthermore, S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems will be transferred to Russian military air base in Syria, while Turkey drew up military equipment to the border with Syria in Hatay province.

The countries were on the verge of breaking diplomatic ties. Moscow said it will seriously reassess agreements and review relations with Turkey.

The situation that could lead to the war was a great anxiety not only for the societies of the two countries, and disquieted the other countries as well. It could enlarge the scale of military operations as the two countries are members of the military blocs, which poses quite a dangerous end.

That even give birth to suppositions of possible beginning of a third World War.

The world countries also divided on the incident. While some criticized the downing of the Russian helicopter, the others supported Turkey’s decision.

Iranian parliament Speaker Ali Larijani assessed Turkey's downing the Russia plane as a big mistake.

In the contrary, U.S. President Barack Obama in a phone conversation with Erdogan said the U.S. and NATO supported Turkey's right to protect its national sovereignty.

Russia and Turkey ready for war?

Despite the deterioration of Turkish-Russian relations following the incident, the sides said all the diplomatic channels are open for a dialogue.

Russia and Turkey, at least, are not the countries to take irrational steps to worsen the situation even more. Thus, deterioration of the Turkish-Russian relations is not beneficial for them, not politically and economically.

Mikhail Remizov, the president of the Russian National Strategy Institute, said the incident with the Russian Su-24 puts Russia-Turkey relations on the brink of war.

"Taking into account that Turkey is a NATO member, all efforts will be taken to avoid this,” he told Trend. “This is possible only in case of profound arguments that such incidents will not reoccur in the future. And this is possible only in case of the guarantees of exchanging the information and cooperation through the military departments, which would rule out such cases."

Moscow and Ankara preferred to solve the problem using diplomacy.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov discussed the recent incident on November 25.

Turkish FM told his Russian counterpart that Ankara didn’t know it was downing a Russian plane. Turkish counterpart also offered his condolences with regard to the incident.

Erdogan also stated that Turkey isn’t going to aggravate relations with Russia.

The world countries called on Moscow and Tehran to show restraint and deal with problem.

The recent incident with Russian plane could remain a "cold stone" in the relations of two countries and have its trace at least in the economic relations between Russia and Turkey. But there is less room for further political crisis in the relations, as both countries prefer diplomacy to put the things in their order.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/145488.html

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