Turkey: Russia is in Syria to prop Assad not fight terrorists, only 8 % of its airstrikes targeted IS

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Syrian president bashar al Assad and Russian president Vladimir Putin  with bloodied hands.
Syrian president bashar al Assad and Russian president Vladimir Putin with bloodied hands.
Turkey’s foreign minister said Ankara’s patience with Russia “has a limit” after Moscow’s “exaggerated” reaction to a weekend naval incident between the two countries, an Italian newspaper reported on Monday.

A Russian destroyer fired warning shots at a Turkish vessel in the Aegean on Sunday to avoid a collision and summoned the Turkish military attache over the incident..

“Ours was only a fishing boat, it seems to me that the reaction of the Russian naval ship was exaggerated,” Mevlut Cavusoglu told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview.

“Russia and Turkey certainly have to re-establish the relations of trust that we have always had, but our patience has a limit,” Cavusoglu said.

The incident is likely to heighten tensions between the two nations who are at odds over Syria and Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane last month.

Cavusoglu said Russia had already “put itself in a ridiculous position” with accusations by its President Vladimir Putin that Turkey had shot down the jet to protect oil supplies from Islamic State.

“No-one believed it” he said.

“Unfortunately Russia is not in Syria to fight terrorists,” Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, adding that only 8 percent of its air strikes had been aimed at Islamic State while 92 percent were against other groups hostile to Assad.

He also criticized Russia’s military intervention in Syria, saying it was aimed at propping up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, not combating Islamic State.

“Unfortunately Russia is not in Syria to fight terrorists,” he said, adding that only 8 percent of its air strikes had been aimed at Islamic State while 92 percent were against other groups hostile to Assad.

Cavusoglu also said air strikes were not sufficient to defeat Islamic State and soldiers on the ground were necessary, according to the interview.

Reuters

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6 responses to “Turkey: Russia is in Syria to prop Assad not fight terrorists, only 8 % of its airstrikes targeted IS”

  1. Patience2 Avatar

    Russia will never do anything but look after it’s own interestes.

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar

      Cheer for Er Dog the new Ataturk.

  2. Hind Abyad Avatar

    Congratulation Yalibnan for the repugnantly grotesque and debilitating picture, looks more like a satire sensationalist paper to satisfy blood thirsty readers.

    “US-backed Syrian rebel group on verge of collapse”
    http://www.stripes.com/us-backed-syrian-rebel-group-on-verge-of-collapse-1.383853

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Oh, my Dear Lady … we know they oversee a lot of bloody hands reaching up for life. It’s not so repugnant. I have some that are real, and basically a little worse for the concept.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Anti-Obama Magazine? 😉

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