Russian ships flaunting missiles during Bosporus Strait passing is provocation: FM Cavusoglu (Turkey
Source: Daily Sabah
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said on Sunday that the Russian sailors donning shoulder-fired surface-air-missiles during Russia's warship transits on Dec. 4 was provocation and that he wished such an incident did not occur again.
On Dec.4, media outlets took photos of a Russian warship called Caesar Kuniko through its transit by Istanbul via the Bosporus strait -- an internationally significant waterway connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean Sea. The cameras captured a Russian soldier on it, holding a missile through the ship's passing.
Foreign Minister Cavusoglu Sunday defined this action as "provocative" and "harassing." He told the reporters that there are certain rules of a ship's passing through Turkish straits and every ship -- whether it is of Russian or any other nationality -- had to abide by them.
"If Turkey perceived any ship's transit as a threat, it will give the necessary reaction. A Russian soldier's showing missile or such a munition system while passing [the Bosporus strait] on a Russian warship is a provocation. We hope this incident is a one-time event, because it is not a right approach."
Read more: http://www.dailysabah.com/diplomacy/2015/12/06/russian-ships-flaunting-missiles-during-bosporus-strait-passing-is-provocation-fm-cavusoglu
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Excellent read.
Now the two sides are squaring off over the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, two tiny former Soviet republics that have been at loggerheads since a six-year war over an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan called Nagorno-Karabakh ended in 1994.
Armenia, a Russian ally, now controls Nagorno-Karabakh. But most of the international community recognizes the enclave as part of Azerbaijan, a Turkish ally. Russia maintains a military base in Armenia, which experts say has had a stabilizing influence.
Azerbaijan is an ethnically Turkic, Muslim country with a 1,100-mile pipeline that brings oil to Turkey via Georgia, bypassing Russia and undercutting Moscow's influence in the region's energy sector.
Turkey has come down firmly on Azerbaijan's side in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. On November 26 — two days after the Russian plane went down — Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu rattled his saber in the dispute. "Turkey will do everything possible to liberate the occupied territories of Azerbaijan," he said, according to Kommersant, a Russian newspaper.
https://news.vice.com/article/the-bad-blood-between-russia-and-turkey-is-spreading-to-armenia-and-azerbaijan
What Russia is trying to do is what they successfully did in Georgia, which was to form 2 breakaway pro-Russian areas of geographical importance, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The areas are 2 of 5 "Ghost Countries" which are not universally recognized by all of the global powers.
Russia is trying the same thing in Ukraine,
and now the Caucasus.
