Freedom4um

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

World News
See other World News Articles

Title: Why Did Turkey Attack a Russian Plane?
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://www.theamericanconservative. ... turkey-attack-a-russian-plane/
Published: Nov 25, 2015
Author: PHILIP GIRALDI
Post Date: 2015-11-25 06:54:50 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 92
Comments: 14

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan may want to derail the an alliance against ISIS—and thus weaken the Assad regime.

The shooting down of a Russian fighter plane by a Turkish F-16 is an extremely disturbing turn of events.

Turkey claims that the SU-24 aircraft had violated its airspace and had not responded to repeated warnings before the armed response took place. The Russians for their part claim that they were operating in Syrian airspace with the concurrence of the Damascus government. President Vladimir Putin appeared on Russian television shortly after the plane went down and was clearly furious, denouncing a “stab in the back by the terrorists’ accomplices” and warning that there would be “severe consequences.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cancelled a planned Wednesday visit to talk with his counterpart in Ankara.

The shoot down will have repercussions. It will inevitably involve some kind of response from NATO while also rendering the creation of any grand alliance against ISIS much less likely.

Turkey has produced a map indicating where the violation of airspace allegedly took place. If the map is accurate, it was over a finger of land two miles wide that juts into Syria. The map and Turkish commentary relating to it suggest that the incursion occurred when the Russian plane crossed the border, but there is perhaps inevitably a problem with that account. A fighter traveling at even subsonic speed would have passed over the Turkish territory in roughly twelve seconds, which rather suggests that there would not have been time for any “repeated warnings.”

Then there is the problem with where the plane actually came down. Admittedly the aircraft would not necessarily plummet straight down to mark the spot where it was hit, but the remains appear to have wound up comfortably inside Syria. A video of the plane’s downing also seems to show it being hit and then going directly down.

There is also the question of who gave the order to fire—and why. The Turks have been complaining about Russian aircraft coming too close to the border and there has been inflammatory media coverage about alleged bombings of the ethnic Turkish Turkmen tribesmen who live in the area on the Syrian side. But given the political sensitivity of what is occurring along the Turkey-Syria border, one would have to suspect that any decision to take decisive action came from the top levels of the government in Ankara. American, British, French and Russian airplanes are all operating over northern Syria. None of those planes can be construed as being hostile to Turkey while the terrorist and rebel groups have no air forces. Why a relatively minor incursion, if it indeed took place, would warrant a shoot down has to be questioned unless it was actually a Turkish plan to engage a Russian plane as soon as it could be plausibly claimed that there had been a violation of airspace.

Why would the Turks do that? Because Russia is supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, apparently with considerable success, and Turkey has been extremely persistent in their demands that he be removed. Al-Assad is seen by Turkey, rightly or wrongly, as a supporter of Kurdish militancy along the long and porous border with Turkey. This explains why Ankara has been lukewarm in its support of the campaign against ISIS, tacitly cooperating with the terrorist group, while at the same time focusing its own military effort against the Kurds, which it sees as an existential threat directed against the unity of the Turkish Republic.

Would Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan do something so reckless? Only he knows for sure, but if his objective was to derail the creation of a unified front against terrorist and rebel groups in Syria and thereby weaken the regime in Damascus, he might just believe that the risk was worth the potential gain.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest.

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

#1. To: Ada (#0)

Turkey just poked the wrong bear.

Darkwing  posted on  2015-11-25   7:55:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Darkwing (#1)

Turkey just poked the wrong bear.

I suspect the Bear wants nothing to do with a mad Turkey.

Poot could always invade Turkey? Right? Show them who is boss? Right?

Cynicom  posted on  2015-11-25   7:58:41 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Ada (#0)

Why Did Turkey Attack a Russian Plane?

Because politicians everywhere are psychopaths.

StraitGate  posted on  2015-11-25   8:33:18 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: StraitGate (#3)

Tsk, the way you talk about them!

In September, village officials in Uzbekistan's town of Shahartepeppa, alarmed that Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev would drive through and notice barren fields (since the cotton crop had already been harvested), ordered about 500 people into the fields to attach cotton capsules onto the front- row stalks to impress Mirziyoyev with the village's prosperity. [RFE/RL via The Guardian (London), 11-16-2015]
www.newsoftheweir d.com/archive/nw151101.html

NeoconsNailed  posted on  2015-11-25   8:45:46 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Cynicom (#2)

Poot could always invade Turkey? Right? Show them who is boss? Right?

Putin doesn't have to "invade Poland" in response to the Su-24 shoot-down.

Russia can, and reportedly is, in the process of canceling commercial ties involving but not limited to construction, tourism and pipelines - in short all but instituting a full economic embargo.

Militarily, Ivan is bringing guided missile cruisers into the eastern Med, providing fighter escorts on air-to-ground missions, and last but not least, deploying the S-400 at the Russian airbase near Latakia.

"Your move, Recep."

"If ignorance is truly bliss, then why do so many Americans need Prozac?" - Dave McGowan

randge  posted on  2015-11-25   9:07:31 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: randge (#5)

The Russians are being very careful.

Ada  posted on  2015-11-25   9:43:21 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: Ada (#6)

The Russians are being very careful.

Very careful, but also very firm and decisive.

I get the impression that there are MEN at the helm over these in contrast to the nest of squabbling leftist babies and zionist qabbalists running things over here.

"If ignorance is truly bliss, then why do so many Americans need Prozac?" - Dave McGowan

randge  posted on  2015-11-25   10:07:11 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: randge (#5)

Russia can, and reportedly is, in the process of canceling commercial ties involving but not limited to construction, tourism and pipelines - in short all but instituting a full economic embargo.

Many Russian people are probably cancelling vacation plans in Turkey over this, not necessarily out of patriotic solidarity, but just out of safety concerns.

Pinguinite  posted on  2015-11-25   10:27:30 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: Pinguinite (#8)

Many Russian people are probably cancelling vacation plans in Turkey over this, not necessarily out of patriotic solidarity, but just out of safety concerns.

Shoot, I was planning to go to Europe for the holidays, but I don't want to tangle with the waits and the security hysteria, much of which is justified.

We're going to go to New Orleans where the hospitality and cooking are just as fine.

"If ignorance is truly bliss, then why do so many Americans need Prozac?" - Dave McGowan

randge  posted on  2015-11-25   10:42:12 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: randge (#5)

Montreux Convention 1936...

""" Development of the Convention since 1936

The Convention remains in force today, with amendments, though not without dispute. It was repeatedly challenged by the Soviet Union during World War II and the Cold War. As early as 1939, Joseph Stalin sought to reopen the Straits Question and proposed joint Turkish and Soviet control of the Straits, complaining that "a small state [i.e. Turkey] supported by Great Britain held a great state by the throat and gave it no outlet."[21] After the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov informed his German counterparts that the USSR wished to take military control of the Straits and establish its own military base there.[22] The Soviets returned to the issue in 1945 and 1946, demanding a revision of the Montreux Convention at a conference excluding most of the Montreux signatories, a permanent Soviet military presence and joint control of the Straits. This was firmly rejected by Turkey, despite an ongoing Soviet "strategy of tension". For several years after World War II, the Soviets exploited the restriction on the number of foreign warships by ensuring that one of theirs was always in the Straits, thus effectively blocking any nation other than Turkey from sending warships through the Straits.[23] Soviet pressure expanded into full on demands to revise the Montreux Convention, which led to the Turkish Straits crisis of 1946, which led to Turkey abandoning its policy of neutrality. In 1947 it became the recipient of US military and economic assistance under the Truman Doctrine of "containment" and joined NATO, along with Greece, in 1952.[24]

The passage of US warships through the Straits also raised controversy, as the convention forbids the transit of non-Black Sea nations' warships with guns of a calibre larger than eight inches (203 mm). In the 1960s, the US sent warships carrying 305 mm calibre ASROC missiles through the Straits, prompting Soviet protests. The Turkish government rejected the Soviet complaints, pointing out that guided missiles were not guns and that such weapons had not even existed at the time of the Convention's agreement so were not restricted.[25]

Cynicom  posted on  2015-11-25   10:51:27 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: randge (#7)

So far, the Russians have not been provoked into retaliatory voilence.

Ada  posted on  2015-11-25   11:27:56 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: Ada (#11)

No, they haven't, but they've brought in some pretty heavy munitions, air, land and sea.

Erdogan is a loose cannon, and in his desperation to suppress any further Syrian or Kurdish gains in the region, he may push hard once again on the Russians if he feels NATO has his back.

There may be fireworks in time for the holidays.

"If ignorance is truly bliss, then why do so many Americans need Prozac?" - Dave McGowan

randge  posted on  2015-11-25   11:36:45 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#13. To: randge (#12)

Erdogan is a loose cannon

Maybe or maybe he was doing the Pentagon's dirty work.

Ada  posted on  2015-11-25   13:39:10 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#14. To: randge (#9)

Shoot, I was planning to go to Europe for the holidays, but I don't want to tangle with the waits and the security hysteria, much of which is justified

Yeah its a real shame what's happening in europe now,. Id be more concerned with the throngs of savage refugees than the turkey thing. I'm not sure if you saw my article on it a few months ago but my wife & I spent 35 days in Europe this summer. We hit 26 countries! Spent less than 3 grand each, too.

red ice radio is doing excellent coverage of all this from sweden, I highly recommend their programs.

If you want to read my account and some pics you can google 26 countries in 35 days.

I also posted one visit to the holohoax memorial in Berlin, LoL. Ill ping you to it. I haven't had time to upload my footage from the Reichtag building (sandwhiched between the US embassy and the fag memorial, no shit! LMAO! ...

"Even to the death fight for truth, and the LORD your God will battle for you". Sirach 4:28

Artisan  posted on  2015-11-25   13:56:50 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest