World press on Turkish-Russian row over Syria (October 12, 2012)

On October 12 Hurriyet published an article by Murat Yetkin headlined 'Will the Syria row lead to a Turco-Russian crisis?'

"According to Turkish Foreign Ministry sources, a second plane incident started with information on Oct. 10 that a Syrian Airlines plane was going to take of from Moscow to Damascus with cargo containing material that could be used by the military. There were unconfirmed reports saying that some of the cargo had been loaded onto the plane from Tula and that the plane had then taken off from Moscow with its passengers," the article reads .

"The Turkish Foreign Ministry first issued an urgent warning reminding all Turkish airmen that Syrian air space should be avoided; the Transportation Ministry said later on that for the last four days Turkish civilian planes had been avoiding that anyway. The Foreign Ministry denies any relation between those two developments."

"The Syrian government protested against Turkey for this “piracy” and stopped buying electricity from Turkey. Turkey was providing 20 percent of Syria’s needs in times of peace, but since the civil war broke out, most of the areas using Turkish electricity have fallen out of government control."

"Turkey informed Russia through diplomatic channels in Moscow and in Ankara, declared the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Following that briefing, it was announced by the Russian side that the Turkey visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin would take place on Dec. 3; two days ago, the visit, which had been planned for Oct. 15, was postponed without any date given. Then came a statement by Gazprom, the Russian energy giant. Gazprom said that it was increasing the gas supply to Turkey in order not to suffer because of an explosion in the pipeline carrying Iranian gas to Turkey. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan finally announced that the militarily usable material on board the civilian plane was sent from an official Russian defense company to the Syrian Defense Ministry," the article reads.

"Now the answer to the question in the headline: No, the Syria row is not likely to create a Turco-Russian crisis. The diplomats of the two countries have agreed to disagree on Syria and also agreed that the Syria affair should not affect their other affairs, as official sources told the Hürriyet Daily News toward the end of the day," the author concludes.