Russia: FM's Zakharova slams NATO's 'blind eye' to Turkish violations in Syria

“[NATO is] turning blind eye to the clear violations of the sovereignty of Syria by Ankara,” claimed Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Zakharova was speaking at her weekly press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow on Thursday.
Zakharova added that “in fact, they are covering up for each other. They are covering up the activities of Turkey in North Syria” which could explain the alleged “ungrounded allegations we hear [aimed] on our address are being invented by Ankara in order to find a pretext or to secure some cover-up for beefing up its own military activities in the region of the border between Turkey and Syria.” Zakharova also claimed closure of the Turkish-Syrian border is necessary as it is “an important factor of the situation's stabilisation in order to cut off the nurturing of terrorist organisations.”
On a related note, Zakharova commented on an alleged ongoing campaign of attempted persuasion by Ankara regarding the downing of the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft on the Turkish-Syrian border in November 2015, saying that despite the barrage of statements released by Turkey in attempt to allegedly persuade people into believing their version of the incident, Ankara “has not presented any objective evidence to prove the allegations.”
Zakharova also touched on the reported case of an alleged sexual assault on an underage Russian citizen in Berlin, saying that Germany has so far failed to provide information on the investigation despite assuring Russian officials that “no data would be withheld and all information would be provided through diplomatic channels” during the German – Russian delegation meeting in the previous week. “A week has elapsed. No information has been provided through diplomatic channels. We hope that the assurances will not remain just assurances and some actions will be taken.” Zakharova concluded.