Russia fires warning shot at Turkey boat in Aegean

[GennGreymane]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35087050

Russia says one of its warships fired warning shots at a Turkish fishing vessel in the Aegean Sea to avoid a collision.
A Russian defence ministry statement said the Turkish vessel approached to 600m (1,800ft) before turning away in response to Russian small arms fire.
The Turkish military attache in Moscow has been summoned to the foreign ministry over the incident.
Relations remain tense over Turkey's shooting down of a Russian bomber.

The Russian SU-24 bomber was shot down by two Turkish F-16s in the Turkish border-Syria area on 24 November. Turkey maintained the plane crossed into its airspace, although Russia disputes this.

And last week, Turkey complained over what it said was a sailor on a Russian naval ship brandishing a missile launcher as the vessel passed through Istanbul. Russia rejected the criticism saying the crew had a "legal right" to protect the ship.

In the latest incident, Russia's defence ministry said its frigate Smetlivy was anchored just off the Greek island of Lemnos on Sunday morning when it spotted the Turkish fishing boat heading towards it some 1,000m (3,000ft) away.

"Despite numerous attempts by the crew of the Smetlivy, the crew of the Turkish fishing boat did not make radio contact and did not respond to visual signals by semaphore or warning flares," the ministry said in a statement.

To prevent a collision, "small arms were fired in the direction of the Turkish vessel from a range that is not lethal".
The ministry said that "immediately after that the Turkish vessel drastically changed course" and passed within half a kilometre of the Smetlivy, still making no contact with the Russian crew.

Russian military vessels are involved in Russia's intervention against rebels in Syria.
President Vladimir Putin described as a "stab in the back" Turkey's downing of the Russian bomber and has imposed economic sanctions.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned on Friday that Ankara's patience with Russia was "not unlimited", and accused Moscow of using "every opportunity" to punish Turkey for the downing of the plane

[StayTuned]

O shit, a fishing boat

What a close call.... the Turks almost hit that battleship. They are small, in all fairness. It's easy to miss them, like, visually.

[Shalcker]

Well, small arms fire as warning shot is quite reasonable for fishing boat on apparent collision course.

[ParanoiD84]

[Deleted]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35087050

I think it was just a buncha lazy, complacent fishermen who didn't give a shit.

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O shit, a fishing boat

What a close call.... the Turks almost hit that battleship. They are small, in all fairness. It's easy to miss them, like, visually.

Could've been a suicide boat, I guess.

[Deleted]

Could've been a suicide boat, I guess.

Maybe they use the same tactics as their allies, ISIS.

[Rukh]

Not that interesting, tbh

[Cerilis]

It's not like they have a history of confusing fishing boats for enemy vessels. *snicker*

[Kellhound]

It's not like they have a history of confusing fishing boats for enemy vessels. *snicker*

Now now, in all fairness, the fishing fleet was manned by more competent sailors than the Russian Navy.

[sarahtasher]

Did you ever heard of the Dogger Bank incident ? (edit : too late)

To this day, Russians ultranationalists still say ''it was a japanese torpedo boat''

[Theinquisition]

O shit, a fishing boat

What a close call.... the Turks almost hit that battleship. They are small, in all fairness. It's easy to miss them, like, visually.

A small boat did A lot of damage to the USS Cole

[Cerilis]

Now now, in all fairness, the fishing fleet was manned by more competent sailors than the Russian Navy.

They killed almost as much of their own guys as they got fishermen. Would be funny if it weren't so sad.

[sarahtasher]

A small boat did A lot of damage to the USA come

Yeah, and such line of thought almost managed to get Tzarist Russia at war with the UK.

[Uzkin]

An appropriate and professional response by the Russian warship, kudos. The Turks have proven themselves to be erratic, hostile, and violent so it's better be safe than sorry with them. A fishing boat can cause some damage if it slams against the warship hull, after all.

[sarahtasher]

An appropriate and professional response by the Russian warship, kudos. The Turks have proven themselves to be erratic, hostile, and violent so it's better be safe than sorry with them. A fishing boat can cause some damage if it slams against the warship hull, after all.

''OMG, dark shapes while we are travelling across one of the most crowded sealanes in the world ! Quick, those must be ennemy saboteur ships !''

1905 or 2015 ?

[Uzkin]

''OMG, dark shapes while we are travelling across one of the most crowded sealanes in the world ! Quick, those must be ennemy saboteur ships !''

1905 or 2015 ?

The Turks seem to be in 1905-ish, unfortunately.

Ps. The punctuation marks are placed immediately after the sentence; there is no space between the last word and "!" or "?", for example.

[Kellhound]

They killed almost as much of their own guys as they got fishermen. Would be funny if it weren't so sad.

And a year later that same Russian fleet was destroyed in one of the most one sided naval battles in history.

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An appropriate and professional response by the Russian warship, kudos. The Turks have proven themselves to be erratic, hostile, and violent so it's better be safe than sorry with them. A fishing boat can cause some damage if it slams against the warship hull, after all.

Professional is not a word usually associated with the Russian Navy. The have poor training, poor maintenance, and a sad history/tradition.

[Uzkin]

Professional is not a word usually associated with the Russian Navy. The have poor training, poor maintenance, and a sad history/tradition.

Regardless of your opinion about them, this instance was handled professionally and with proper use of force. They could have gone full Turk instead; sink the ship, shoot the surviving passengers, and desecrate their bodies.

[Kellhound]

Regardless of your opinion about them, this instance was handled professionally and with proper use of force. They could have gone full Turk instead; sink the ship, shoot the surviving passengers, and desecrate their bodies.

If the ship was in Russian waters.....

[Theinquisition]

If the ship was in Russian waters.....

The Russians think all waters are their waters