The follow-up to the Turkish downing of a Russian fighter jet is now a battle of conflicting versions of the confrontation, though neither side seems to have an appetite for war. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have said they will not “escalate” the conflict. Still, Russia trotted out a limping airman to say his jet had received no Turkish warnings before being shot. Turkey released a recording purporting to be Turkish military air control warning an unknown foreign jet to scram or pay the consequences and the United States Department of Defense confirmed the Turkish claim that Ankara emitted ten warnings in five minutes before aiming at the Russian jets.
Despite the protestations to the contrary, Putin has wasted no time in making his anger felt. Russia announced it would halt all agriculture importation from Turkey, replacing the fruit and vegetables with goods from Israel, Iran or Morocco. And on Wednesday, Russian fighter jets bombed several aid convoys (yes, aid convoys) in the northwestern Syrian town of Azaz, right on the Turkish border. Turkish trucks were photographed in flames and at least seven are reported dead. The kicker: the convoy belonged to the Turkish-based IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, the very same group that lost 9 activists in the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Greek PM Alexis Tsipras [1], who met in Jerusalem yesterday, may well have whispered a little “thank you” to Putin.