Foreign Affairs

Jefferson23

(30,099 posts) Wed Nov 25, 2015, 02:00 PM Nov 2015

Turkey shoots down Russian plane: Nato will be worried by strike on Russia

It is damaging for Turkey to have bad relations with Russia and Iran, two powerful neighbours close to its borders

Patrick Cockburn

2 hours ago

Turkey must have been eager to shoot down a Russian aircraft. Even going by the Turkish account of what happened, as illustrated by a Turkish map of the route of the Russian plane, it would only briefly have been in Turkish airspace as it crossed a piece of Turkish territory that projects into Syria.

Why would Turkey do this? Probably because Ankara has become increasingly furious, since Russian air strikes started in Syria on 30 September, that Russian jets were routinely invading its airspace. The Turkish government also knows that its policy since 2011 of getting rid of President Bashar al-Assad has failed and that it has a diminishing influence in events in Syria as Russia, the US, France and possibly, in the near future, Britain increase their military involvement in Syria.

Specific events on the 550 mile-long Syrian-Kurdish role may also have played a role. This year Turkey has seen the Syrian Kurds, whom it denounces as terrorists as bad as Isis, take control of half of the frontier and threaten to move west of the Euphrates. More recently, Syrian army units backed by Russian air strikes have been attacking towards the other end of the border near where the Russian plane came down and the pilots were killed.

Nato countries will give some rhetorical support to Turkey as a Nato member, but many will not be dismissive in private of President Vladimir Putin’s angry accusation that Turkey is the accomplice of terrorists. Turkey’s support for the Syrian armed opposition, including extreme groups like Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, has been notorious over the last three years. Its relations with Isis are murky, but it has been credibly accused of allowing the self-declared Islamic State to sell oil through Turkey.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/turkey-shoots-down-russian-plane-nato-will-be-worried-by-strike-on-russia-a6747521.html

Backround, July 2014 Subcommittee Hearing: The Future of Turkish Democracy--Testimony. Transcript:

http://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA14/20140715/102483/HHRG-113-FA14-Transcript-20140715.pdf

5 replies

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Highlight:

Turkey shoots down Russian plane: Nato will be worried by strike on Russia (Original Post) Jefferson23 Nov 2015 OP

Turkey is supporting the Daesh WDIM Nov 2015 #1

Syrian Turkmen facing 'critical' period in battle bemildred Nov 2015 #2

So much killing so many loyalties...so little we can really do...... KoKo Nov 2015 #4

Yes. nt bemildred Nov 2015 #5

Casualties reported as airstrikes hit aid convoy near Turkey border bemildred Nov 2015 #3

WDIM

(1,662 posts)

1. Turkey is supporting the Daesh

Reply to Jefferson23 (Original post)

Wed Nov 25, 2015, 02:34 PM

Nov 2015

They have a common enemy in the Kurds.
Yet another one of our so called allies that are supporting our so called enemy. Add them to the list with Saudis and Qatar.

bemildred

(90,061 posts)

2. Syrian Turkmen facing 'critical' period in battle

Reply to Jefferson23 (Original post)

Wed Nov 25, 2015, 04:47 PM

Nov 2015

HATAY, Turkey

Fighting between Syrian Turkmen forces and regime troops is “critical", the leader of the Turkmen opposition said Wednesday.

Russian airpower is carrying out heavy bombing of villages around Kizildag, in the mountainous Bayirbucak border region of northwest Syria.

The site of the fighting is close to where a Russian SU-24 bomber was brought down by the Turkish Air Force on Tuesday.

“Our young people continue fighting,” Abdurrahman Mustafa, head of the Syrian Turkmen Assembly, told Anadolu Agency. “Russians and regime forces hit the logistic points to prevent any support.”

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/syrian-turkmen-facing-critical-period-in-battle/481401

KoKo

(84,711 posts)

4. So much killing so many loyalties...so little we can really do......

Reply to bemildred (Reply #2)

Wed Nov 25, 2015, 10:23 PM

Nov 2015

"Collateral Damage" extends far beyond those caught in "Targeted Military Strikes" from when we thought we'd Win Iraq an has Spread all over the Middle East.

All that "Collateral Damage" ends up with more and more "Innocents."

Memories live long when there's this much Death and Destruction. America's Own "Civil War or "War Between the States" still lives today in our social structure in Southern States as an Issue that politicians can still pander to ......and still has its repercussions throughout our society even in states that had no part in that war and 20th Century Citizen Immigrants" who have no ties to it in any way except to adopt the attitude of "that time" for "States Rights for the "Right to Bear Arms" if the "Government Comes after Its People"...for whatever reason.

The South never got over the "Civil War" because of the different memories of that time We deal with it still...these days.

And it's used by Polticians (here in US) to keep that anger going.....to Pander and "hit the buttons" of discontent even though that WAR is LONG GONE and out of so much of the Collective US Citizens Memory that they have no idea where this Hatred comes from.

bemildred

(90,061 posts)

5. Yes. nt

Reply to KoKo (Reply #4)

Thu Nov 26, 2015, 06:26 AM

Nov 2015

bemildred

(90,061 posts)

3. Casualties reported as airstrikes hit aid convoy near Turkey border

Reply to Jefferson23 (Original post)

Wed Nov 25, 2015, 04:48 PM

Nov 2015

Footage filmed at a crossing on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey's southern province of Kilis showed trucks burning on Wednesday after what aid workers said was an apparent air strike.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu agency said seven people were killed and 10 wounded in strikes that it said hit a convoy taking supplies to refugees in Azaz on Wednesday.

The head of the rebel-run border crossing in the same area said separately that air strikes hit a garage for commercial trailers, killing three people.

"Our teams helped to extinguish the fire... The trucks do not belong to us and there is no information on who bombed them," Mustafa Özbek, an İstanbul-based official from the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (İHH), told Reuters.

http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_casualties-reported-as-airstrikes-hit-aid-convoy-near-turkey-border_405297.html

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