Roundup: Turkey, Russia remain defiant amid strained ties over warplane downing

The war of words between Turkey and Russia following the downing a Russian Su-24 bomber continues to strain ties between the two countries.

Leaders of Russia and Turkey have locked themselves in a stalemate by raising the bar high on preconditions that will lead to normalization between the two major trading partners.

"We have not yet received any clear apology from Turkey's high political level, nor any proposal to compensate the harm and damage or promises to punish perpetrators of the crime," Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

Hours later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out an apology to Russia, asking Moscow to apologize first for intruding Turkish airspace despite prior warnings.

"I think if there is a party that needs to apologize, it is not us," he told CNN in an interview, adding that "those, who violated our airspace, are the ones who need to apologize."

"Faced with the same violation today, Turkey would give the same response," he also noted.

Turkey-Russia ties took a dive after Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian warplane on the Syrian border on Tuesday for allegedly violating its airspace after repeated warnings. Moscow denies the plane veneered into the Turkish airspace and said the attack looks to be pre-planned provocation.

The Russian president called the incident a "stab in the back' and warned of serious Consequences for bilateral relations.

BROADER CONFLICT ON HORIZON

Gokhan Bacik, professor of international relations at Ankara-based Ipek University, pointed out that the expression of Putin 'stab in the back' is unusually harsh and noted that a head of state rarely uses such wording.

Bacik argued that the current crisis, even if it subsides, looks to be going away beyond the shooting incident.

"From a broader perspective, Russian state elites have started to see Turkish foreign policy and its orientation as problematic from Russian viewpoint," he added.

Russia has already announced a series of retaliatory measures against Turkey that included ban or restrictions on a number of joint projects with Turkey and calling on Russians not to visit Turkey. The military ties were suspended and high-level inter-governmental conference scheduled for next month was shelved indefinitely.

Izmir Chamber of Commerce (IZTO) board chairman Ekrem Demirtas said all economic and trade figures suggest Turkey does not have a luxury to fight with Russia.

"Our firms have undertaken 1,571 contracts worth 55.7 billion U.S. dollars in Russia between 1989-2014," he remarked, stressing that the trade volume was 31.2 billion dollars in 2014 and the number of Russian vacationers who came to Turkey totaled 4.5 million.

TURKEY DOWNPLAYS THREATS

Turkish officials have downplayed the significance of Russian measures against Turkey although they expressed their desire to normalize ties with Russia.

"There are eight billon people in the world," Turkish Transport and Communication Minister Binali Yildirim said on Thursday, stressing that those who urge travelers not to go to Turkey will not be able to convince the whole world to follow suit.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev listed on Thursday the restrictions against Turkey that could involve suspension of economic cooperation programs, limitations of financial transactions including foreign trade and export and import duties and cutting tourism and circulation of aircraft and vessels, as well as humanitarian contacts and employment of foreign citizens.

He also described the downing of the Russian warplane as an "act of aggression," which is more serious than 'unfriendly act' originally labeled by the Russian Defense Ministry immediately after the incident.

"Government departments have been asked to formulate a series of measures to respond to this act of aggression," Medvedev told a government meeting on Thursday.

RUSSIA TO APPLY MEASURES

Yasar Yakis, former Turkish foreign minister, said the tension between Ankara and Moscow may have a toll on economic and trade ties and negatively influence foreign investment flow to Turkey.

Stressing that Turkey's action against the Russian violation was justified, Yakis cautioned that being right is not enough in international relations.

"It must be looked at from the point of what we gained and what we lost by taking this step," Yakis remarked.

Russia is not restrained in harsh remarks against Turkey with the Kremlin saying on Thursday that Turkey's downing of the Russian jet has dealt a "devastating" blow to bilateral ties.

"It will be very difficult to mend bilateral relations after such quite devastating damage. It is too serious an incident that serious consequences are unavoidable... and we are still waiting for realistic explanations from the Turkish side," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

NO HIGH-LEVEL MEETINGS YET

Turkish media reported on Thursday that Putin and Erdogan will likely meet on the sidelines of the upcoming Paris Climate Change Conference, which both leaders are expected to attend.

But Peskov did not confirm that, saying that no separate meeting has been planned so far between the Russian and Turkish presidents.

Turkey's European Union Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir announced that the foreign ministers of both countries will come together in an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in the Serbian capital of Belgrade on Dec. 3-4.

That was not confirmed by the Russian side either.

In the meantime, Russia has intensified aerial campaign against what it called anti-terrorist attacks on targets in northern Latakia. Turkey says there are no Islamic State (IS) militants in the area and accused Russia of targeting civilians especially Turkmens, the ethnic kin of Turkey.

Erdogan vowed on Thursday to continue to support moderate rebels in Syria and Turkmen fighters battling Bashar al-Assad. Endit