MOSCOW — Turkish nationals in Russia have been grimly exchanging horror stories ever since Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber near the Syrian border on November 24, an incident that has spurred a furious Russian response.
President Vladimir V. Putin has warned of further reprisals over the shooting down of a Russian warplane, while Turkey denounced “Soviet-style propaganda.”
Tens of thousands of Turks fear their lives have irrevocably changed amid diplomatic war between Russian and Turkish leaders
Vildan Seçkiner was looking forward to seeing the sights of St Petersburg during her first trip to Russia. Instead, the 32-year-old was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for 16 hours, threatened, and deported. Her crime: holding Turkish citizenship.
Nato has annouced plans to strengthen Turkey’s air defences on the country’s border with Syria. Since the downing of a Russian fighter jet the alliance with Moscow against the IS militants has collapsed, some commentators complain. Other urge the West not to allow Ankara to exploit the situation for its own purposes.
Vladimir Putin uses his annual address to Russia’s political elite to warn Turkey’s leaders that Moscow would never forget last week’s downing of a Russian fighter jet. The president said he was still bemused by the Turkish decision to shoot down the Su-24, and received applause for saying: “Perhaps only Allah knows why they did this.”
Turkey may have fired the first shot on a Russian military plane last week, but Russia has made it clear it’s prepared to use everything in its arsenal against its new enemy No. 1.
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