Russian navy ships force Turkish vessel to change course in Black Sea

A Russian Black Sea corvette and a coast guard boat have forced a commercial vessel under a Turkish flag to change course after it got in the way of a Crimean energy firm's boats towing oil rigs, the company said on Monday.

The firm, Chernomorneftegaz, said the rigs were delivered into safety.

Russia's Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that its navy destroyer Smetlivy "fired warning shots for a Turkish vessel in the Aegean Sea to avoid a collision," and Turkey's military attache in Moscow was summoned to the ministry over the incident.

Media outlets in Russia reported that the vessel, variably reported as a fishing boat and a large civilian ship, did not respond to calls to change course to avoid collision some 22 kilometers from the Greek Aegean island of Lemnos between Turkey and Greece. Upon failure to heed the warnings, the Russian crew fired small arms, and the vessel eventually changed course while only some 600 meters away from the destroyer.

The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, regarding the incident, said that the ministry would release a statement after holding talks with the Turkish fishermen, according to various media reports. He said, "We do not favor tension, [this incident] needs to be overcome through dialogue."

Speaking to Doğan news agency the Turkish boat's captain denied that it had his boat been fired at, saying: "It's a lie. There is no such thing."

"We passed within a mile of a warship which was at anchor. We didn't even know that it was a Russian ship, we thought it was a NATO ship. We didn't realise we had been fired at," Muzaffer Geçici said.