Russia suspends parliamentary relations with Turkey

The upper house of the Russian parliament has frozen contacts with the Turkish legislature amid heightened tensions between the two countries following Ankara’s downing of a Russian fighter jet on the Syrian soil.

“Our contacts with colleagues in the Turkish parliament, which have been very active until now, have been frozen,” Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the council’s foreign affairs committee, said on Friday.

Kosachev said the Russian chamber “sees no point in unfreezing such contacts as long as the Turkish lawmakers are unthinkingly and dogmatically upholding the position taken by the Turkish president.”

Russia wants Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to apologize for the downing of the aircraft but he has dismissed the demand.

The development came almost two weeks after the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, also announced suspending contacts with the Turkish legislature.

“In the foreseeable future, top officials of the State Duma see no possibility for contacts at the higher parliamentary level between the State Duma and Turkey’s parliament,” said Alexey Pushkov, the head of Duma’s foreign affairs committee.

On November 24, Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24M Fencer with two pilots aboard, claiming the fighter jet had violated the Turkish airspace. One of the pilots lost his life in the incident and the other was rescued in a Syrian army operation.

Moscow has dismissed Ankara’s claims, saying the plane was brought down in Syria’s airspace, where Russia has been conducting operations against Takfiri terrorists since September 30 upon a request by the Damascus government.

Following the incident, Moscow imposed a number of punitive measures against Ankara, including import restriction on Turkish foods, a ban on tourist travel to Turkey, an embargo on hiring Turkish citizens in Russia and a ban on Turkish organizations' activities in Russia.

On Friday, experts started examining the black box of the downed Russian plane to determine its flight path and position, which Ankara and Moscow have disagreed upon.

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