Turkish captain denies Russia's warning shots claims

CANAKKALE, Turkey

The captain of the Turkish fishing boat that the Russian Navy claims to have fired warning shots towards has denied that his ship received such a caution.

Muzaffer Gecici, who commands a 30-strong company aboard the Geciciler Balikcilik 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 Canakkale.

On Sunday, Russia claimed sailors aboard the destroyer Smetlivy fired small arms as a warning to avoid a collision with a Turkish fishing vessel 22 kilometers (14 miles) off the coast of Greek island Lemnos.

The incident has been viewed as the latest in a series of minor incidents since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane which violated Turkish airspace over the Syrian border on Nov. 24.

Gecici, who has fished the Aegean for 40 years, said his ship’s course was recorded. “It is clear that from where we sailed, we were already working in international waters and our own waters,” he said.

He added: “We did not change our rota. It is out of the question to sail towards it [the warship]. There was never the possibility of a clash.”

Hours after the Russian Defense Ministry reported the incident, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country was “not in favor of tension.”