Special to WorldTribune.com
Tensions between Turkey and Russia increased on Dec. 6 when a Turkish TV station broadcast photos of what it said was a Russian soldier holding a rocket launcher on his shoulder as his ship passed through Istanbul.
“For a Russian soldier to display a rocket launcher or something similar while passing on a Russian warship is a provocation,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, according to the Hürriyet news site. “If we perceive a threatening situation, we will give the necessary response.”
Turkey-Russia relations have deteriorated sharply since Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian Su-24 and Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Turkey of obtaining oil from territory controlled by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).
NTV news in Turkey on Dec. 5 broadcast what it said were photographs of a Russian serviceman holding a rocket launcher on the deck of the landing ship Caesar Kunikov as it passed through the Bosphorus strait.
The Bosphorus offers the only passage to the world’s oceans for the Russian Black Sea fleet. A World War I-era treaty obliges Turkey to allow all ships to pass during peacetime.
Rocket launcher incident in Bosphorus strait further strains Turkey-Russia ties added by World Tribune on
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