President of Turkey warns Russia not 'playing with fire'

ISTANBUL / MOSCOW (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has warned Russia on Friday not to "play with fire" citing reports that Turkish businessmen were held in Russia, and Moscow responded making the issuance of visas more strict.

Relations between the former Cold War antagonists are at their lowest point since Turkey brought down a Russian fighter near the border with Syria on Tuesday. Russia threatened economic retaliation answer Erdogan dismissed as emotional and unseemly.

The incident proved a distraction to the West, which seeks to raise support for the fight led by the United States against the Islamic state in Syria. The civil war in that country, which has lasted nearly five years, was complicated by Russian air strikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey, which has long want Assad's departure, has deep trade ties with Moscow, and they can be affected. Erdogan dismissed reports that some businessmen from his country were arrested for irregularities in their visas during a trade show in Russia.

"It's playing with fire get to the point of mistreating our citizens who went to Russia," Erdogan told his supporters during a speech in Bayburt in northeastern Turkey. "We really attach much importance to our relations with Russia ... we do not want these relations to be harmed in any way."

He said he can talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the climate summit next week in Paris. So far Putin refused to make contact with Erdogan because Ankara does not want to apologize for the overthrow of his hunting, said an aide to Putin.

Erdogan said Turkey is deserving excuses why its airspace was violated. Moscow insists that the aircraft never left the Syrian airspace.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow would suspend its dismissal of visa regime with Turkey from January 1, 2016, which may affect the tourism industry in Turkey - its resorts are much frequented by Russians.

The Russian Ministry of Agriculture has already increased the inspection of food imports and horticultural Turkey, one of the first public measures to restrict trade.

(Additional reporting by Melih Aslan and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul, John Davison in Beirut; Radu-Sorin Marinas in Bucharest; Darya Korsunskaya in Moscow, John Irish in Paris)