‘Ankara summons Russian envoy over soldier brandishing weapon on warship’

ISTANBUL — Turkey on Monday summoned Russia's ambassador to Ankara over images of a Russian serviceman brandishing a rocket launcher as his warship navigated through Turkish waters, foreign ministry sources said. 

Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov was summoned to the foreign ministry headquarters over the images published by the Turkish media on Sunday, the sources said, the latest escalation of tensions following Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane last month.

"Our expectation that such acts, which are against the spirit of international laws and not directly related to the passage [of the ship] itself, will not be repeated, has been emphasised." 

Turkey's private NTV channel broadcast pictures of what it said was a Russian serviceman aboard the "Caesar Kunikov" with a rocket launcher on his shoulder in the firing position as it passed through the Bosphorus Strait. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has called on Russia to end "provocative acts" and said that Turkey had already taken the necessary steps in response to the incident, without giving further details. 

"The ship's passage in such a way was clearly a provocation. This has to come to an end," Cavusoglu told Kanal 24 television on Monday. 

"I hope it is an isolated incident, it is not a right approach," he said, calling on Russia to act as a "more mature state."

NTV reported that the vessel from the Russian navy's Black Sea fleet passed through the Bosphorus on Sunday morning. However the foreign ministry sources said the incident occurred on Friday. 

Moscow and Ankara are locked in their worst crisis since the Cold War over the November 24 jet downing on Turkey's border with Syria, sparking fury and economic sanctions from the Kremlin.