Turkey says patience with Russia has its limits

MOSCOW — Turkey’s foreign minister says his country is refraining from responding to Russian efforts to hit back at Turkey over its downing of a Russian jet, but says the country’s patience is not without limits.

Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday that Turkey wants to overcome tensions with Russia but that Moscow is using “every opportunity” to hit at Turkey.

The downing of the jet has brought previously warm ties between Turkey and Russia to a post-Cold War low. Russia slapped economic sanctions on Turkey and recently took the issue of Turkey’s deployment of troops in Iraq to the United Nations Security Council.

Cavusoglu told NTV television: “If we are not responding to all that they have done until now, it is not because we are afraid or because any psychology of guilt.”