Turkish president warns Russia not to 'play with fire'

By Rudy Takala, Rudy Takala

Published December 20, 2015

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Russia should not "play with fire," referring to sanctions that the country is threatening to place on Turkey.

"We very sincerely recommend to Russia not to play with fire," Erdogan said in a televised speech. "We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia ... We don't want these relations to suffer harm in any way."

"I would like to meet [Russian President Vladimir Putin] face-to-face in Paris," Erdogan added, referring to United Nations climate change talks being held there next week. "I would like to bring the issue to a reasonable point. We are disturbed that the issue has been escalated."