Posted on 06/28/2016 12:19:46 PM PDT by NRx
ISTANBUL — Turkey continued its diplomatic fence mending on Monday, apologizing for downing a Russian jet near its border with Syria last year.
In a letter to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday, the same day Turkey announced a rapprochement with Israel, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed regret about the November episode, in which Turkish forces shot down a Russian warplane that Turkey said had violated its airspace.
The downing infuriated Russia and paralyzed relations between the two countries: The Kremlin ordered sanctions on Turkish food imports, stopped visa-free travel for Turks and barred Turkish tour operators from offering Russian tourists vacation packages.
Mr. Erdogan has become isolated diplomatically after adopting an increasingly authoritarian stand, a combative position with Europe regarding the international migrant crisis, and a newly muscular foreign policy, including a failed strategy in Syria. The outreach on Monday can be viewed as an effort to repair some of that damage.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Just heard that two bomb blasts reported in Istanbul.....possibly the airport.
I’d be less miffed about the downing and more miffed about the murder of the pilot, but hey, that’s me and my rayciss Eurocentric value system.
This is significant. Putin is the undisputed BSD of the region, if not the hemisphere.
bang! bang! boom! boom!
Apology accepted...
...Vlad
Just in time for the HUGE (and it is huge) Russian tourist onslaught on Turkey. The Russians had been boycotting Turkey prior.
Sounds like Putin, yet again, won another round here.
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