Turkey foreign minister calls on Russia for calm, says patience not unlimited

Cavusoglu also said the recent additional deployment of troops to Iraq was made after an increased security threat

ANKARA: Turkey is calling on Russia for calm, but its patience is not unlimited, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.

In a live interview on NTV, Cavusoglu also said that the recent additional deployment of troops to Iraq was made after an increase in the security threat.

Earlier, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Russia met in Belgrade on Thursday in the first high-level bilateral talks since the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish jets sparked an unprecedented crisis.

Two Turkish F-16 jets shot down a Russian plane on November 24 which Ankara said violated its airspace. Russia insists that the plane did not cross from Syria and accused Turkey of a deliberate provocation.



The plane incident plunged the two countries’ relationship into a crisis, with Russia demanding an official apology from the Turkish leadership.