MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th February, 2020) Russian Ambassador in Ankara Alexei Erkhov said on Sunday that the diplomatic mission kept registering the rise in anti-Russia sentiment in the Turkish information space over tensions in Syria's Idlib as well as personal threats against him.
On Thursday, Erkhov told Sputnik that the escalation in Idlib led to an anti-Russia hysteria in the Turkish social networks and personal threats against him. Ankara has since assured Russia that it has done everything to safeguard the latter's diplomatic missions and their employees in Turkey, according to Moscow.
"As for the threats: we have talked enough about them over recent days and even made public the most odious of them. Among the latest - those that came yesterday in the evening and this morning - are the following: 'We will build skyscrapers from the skulls of your military,' 'Pay the price for every drop of blood you shed' and so on," Erkhov told Russia's Zvezda tv channel.
The diplomat yet noted attempts in Turkey to somewhat "clear" the information space in light of the complaints and thanked those who had taken the measures.
He stressed that such threats were unacceptable as they were directed not just against him but Russia and its people and warned against stirring up hatred between the two peoples.
"Those who write them [threats] may not fully realize that they start a chain reaction of xenophobia, anger and hatred, which may find some practical manifestation. Many experts recall that the information and propaganda situation that has developed over recent days resembles the situation that was five years ago, and we remember how it ended," Erkhov added.
In November 2015, a Turkish air force F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Su-24M near the Syrian-Turkish border.
