Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Monday that "Turkey has a limit to its patience" regarding the tense relations with Russia.
In an interview with an Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Cavuşoğlu commented on the Russian warship's firing at a Turkish fishing vessel in the Aegean Sea on Sunday, saying: "Ours was only a fishing boat. Russian warship's reaction seems exaggerated to me".
On Sunday, Russia claimed sailors aboard the destroyer Smetlivy fired small arms as a warning to avoid a collision with a Turkish fishing vessel, some 22 kilometers (14 miles), off the coast of Greek island Lemnos.
The captain of the Turkish fishing boat, on the other hand, has denied that his ship received such a caution.
Muzaffer Geçici, who commands a 30-strong company aboard the Geçiciler Balıkçılık 1, said none of his crew noticed any kind of warning shots.
"I was told 'The Russian ship opened fire at you'. We neither saw any fire nor a ship," he told journalists in the northwestern province of Çanakkale.
The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Ankara and the Kremlin after Turkey downed a Russian Su-24 fighter jet on Nov. 24 near the Turkish-Syrian border after it violated Turkish airspace, according to Ankara, despite repeated warnings.
Touching upon the strained ties between the two countries, Çavuşoğlu said that Russia and Turkey should re-establish their trust-based relationship again.
The foreign minister has also commented on Russia's air operations on Syria. He said that only air operations against Daesh were not sufficient and highlighted the need for ground operations.
"Regrettably, Russia does not struggle against terrorists in Syria. Figures show that eight percent of the Russian air operations are against Daesh while 92 percent of them are against Turkmen and Syrian oppositions," he said.
Russia began air operations in Syria on Sept. 30 with the aim of supporting the embattled regime of Syrian Bashar al-Assad.
While the Kremlin says airstrikes target the Daesh militant group, some members of the western NATO alliance believe Russia is targeting groups opposed to Assad, including some that enjoy U.S. and Turkish support.
At least 250,000 people have been killed since the Syria conflict began in 2011, according to UN figures.
