Aegean Incident Shows Russia-Turkey Tensions Go Beyond Syria – Greek Party

The differences between Moscow and Ankara have escalated beyond the Syrian issue, as the incident involving a Turkish seiner and a Russian frigate in the Aegean Sea shows, Elisseos Vagenas, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov — On Sunday, the crew of the Russian Smetlivy frigate managed to prevent a collision with a Turkish seiner in the northern part of the Aegean Sea only by firing warning shots. Following the incident, the military attache at the Turkish Embassy in Moscow was urgently summoned to the Russian Defense Ministry.

"The serious incident between Russia and Turkey in the Aegean Sea, involving a Russian warship and a Turkish fishing vessel, demonstrates that the intensification of the contradictions between the two countries, after the downing of the Russian warplane by Turkish fighter planes in Syria, might take on new dimensions in regions beyond Syria as well," Vagenas, who is responsible for the KKE’s international relations section, said.

Russian-Turkish relations deteriorated following the downing of a Russian Su-24 aircraft by a Turkish F-16 fighter in Syria on November 24.

Following the incident, Moscow imposed a number of restrictive measures on Turkey. Russia also suspended a number of strategic bilateral projects, in particular, negotiations on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project.