In response to the downing of Russia’s fighter jet, they’ve held 8 Turkish ships in their ports for inspections. Now Turkey has made a similar move, and they are holding 27 Russian ships in their ports:
DAILY SABAH – Eight Turkish ships currently docked in Russian ports have been denied the ability to travel since the military jet downing incident on Nov. 24.
This has led Turkey to tighten its inspections of Russian ships in response, and has so far withheld 27 Russian ships due to the failure to meet sailing criteria.
According to Turkish daily Habertürk, based on shipping officials in Ankara, the number of Turkish ships held by Russia reached eight this week.
Turkey, using the principle of reciprocity, tightened the inspections in Turkish ports in line with the Mediterranean and Black Sea memorandums. So far, 27 ships have been withheld from sailing as they failed to meet the criteria set by these memorandums.
Following these incidents, Turkish and Russian authorities contacted each other via email, with the Russian side giving the green light for a meeting to overcome the crisis, although how and when the parties will meet is unclear. The withheld Russian ships were described as old vessels.
This article speaks of a meeting between Turkey and Russia to resolve this crisis, but the way forward here doesn’t seem that simple. Turkey is clearly acting as though they did nothing wrong by downing the Russian jet and they continue to push Russia.
I’m just not sure how this ends well considering how upset Putin is about the Turkish aggression.