Trigger-happy Turkey has downed a Russian jet saying it strayed into its airspace, even though it seems that the jet was only in Turkish airspace for a matter of seconds.
Russia, however, says its jet was in Syrian airspace and so, too, was the Turkish jet which shot it down.
The shooting down of a Russian plane by an Islamist-ruled dictatorship - to the extent that Turkish football fans could boo and chant ‘Allahu Akbar’ during a minute’s silence for the Paris victims at a friendly match - which has the second largest standing force in Nato and which itself has a history of crossing sovereign borders, such as its incursions into Iraq in 1995, 1997 and 2008, could bring the world to the brink of World War III.
JOHN R BRADLEY: It's terrifying how easily Turkey and Russia could take the world to the brink...
By John R Bradley For The Daily Mail
25 November 2015
Daily Mail
Any hopes the Paris atrocities would force the world’s leaders to put aside their differences over Syria’s devastating war and focus on wiping out Islamic State were dashed yesterday.
Make no mistake: the potential consequences of Turkey’s decision to shoot a Russian fighter jet out of the sky for allegedly violating its airspace near the Syrian border are profoundly chilling.
This unprecedented act by Turkey — the first time in 50 years a Nato country has brought down a Russian jet — is extraordinarily provocative.
Vladimir Putin is furious, using decidedly undiplomatic language to accuse the Turkish leadership of stabbing his country ‘in the back’ and being ‘accomplices of terrorists’.
Fury: Turkey's decision to shoot down a Russian jet is extraordinarily provocative
Outrage
Small wonder leaders in Europe are frantically calling for diplomatic channels to be used to resolve tensions.
But rather than seeing cool heads prevail, in the coming days and weeks we are far more likely to witness dramatically escalating tensions between Russia and the Nato alliance, of which Turkey is a key member.
The seeds of this diplomatic disaster were sown long ago.
Islamist-ruled Turkey is strongly opposed to Russia’s ally, the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and has been long accused of duplicitously backing Islamic State.
But even those in diplomatic circles will be aghast at the situation’s rapid deterioration.
For adding to Russia’s outrage and humiliation, ethnic Turks inside Syria — who are allies of Turkey, enemies of the Assad regime and fierce opponents of Russian airstrikes — also, it seems, committed a blatant war crime, by shooting dead one of the two Russian pilots as they parachuted out.
These supposedly ‘moderate’ Turkmen rebels proceeded to celebrate by firing their machine guns in the air, while abusing the corpse of the pilot and screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘God is the greatest’) in Arabic.
Moreover, just hours after the shooting down of the Russian jet at the Syrian border, a Russian helicopter was downed in another part of Syria by the Western-sponsored Free Syrian Army, using an advanced surface-to-air missile of the kind supplied to them by the thousand by our Persian Gulf allies.
Unsurprisingly, we are now menacingly being told that the Russian defence ministry is ‘devising a set of measures to respond to the incident’.
Repercussions: Vladimir Putin, pictured hours after the attack, described the downing of the jet as a 'stab in the back'
Already the Kremlin is advising its nationals against visiting Turkey. Russians are the second biggest group of visitors to the country, but tour operators have announced all trips have immediately been put on hold.
There is even speculation that Moscow could cut off its gas supplies to Turkey, as it has in the past to punish Ukraine — thus cutting off 20 per cent of its energy supply and causing economic havoc for the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Yet while global attention has, in recent weeks, been on the threats posed by Russia’s entry into Syria, this latest development will rightly focus minds on the ticking bomb that is Turkey — a power with its own worryingly bellicose leader.
For President Erdogan, busy turning his own once staunchly secular country into an Islamist dictatorship — to the extent that Turkish football fans could boo and chant ‘Allahu Akbar’ during a minute’s silence for the Paris victims at a friendly match — the over-riding priority is Assad’s downfall.
He is desperate to get rid of the secular Assad and see a fellow Muslim Brotherhood government installed in Syria, as a valuable ally.
In pursuit of that end, Erdogan has openly supported jihadist groups in Syria opposed to Assad, including the Al-Nusra Front, which is proscribed as a terror organisation by the U.S. and Europe.
Turkey — a nation of 76 million people, which has long been trying to join the EU — is now teeming with Islamic fundamentalists and was, until very recently, turning a blind eye to jihadis from all over the world eager to make their way to join the anti-Assad insurgency in Syria via its border.
The Turkish frontier has long been described as a ‘two-way jihadist highway’ without checks, and the smuggling of weapons and funds through it to Islamic State is widely alleged.
In 2014, a photograph emerged showing what was said to be an Islamic State commander in a hospital bed in Turkey receiving treatment for battle wounds.
In light of all this, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s casual defence of the downing of the Russian fighter jet as a ‘national duty’ rang breathtakingly hollow.
For by any objective measure, a single Russian fighter jet crossing the Turkish border for a matter of seconds would pose no serious threat to Turkey’s sovereignty.
In fact, we should be under no illusion that this act was, in all probability, not so much an act of self-defence as a cold and calculated attempt on Turkey’s part to undermine Russia’s ferocious campaign of airstrikes against Islamic State, as well as its recently formed military alliance with Nato member France.
Crucially, the hostile act came on the back of relentless diplomatic pressure on Moscow — Turkey has been calling for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss Russia’s attacks on the Turkmen stronghold inside Syria and summoned the Russian ambassador to protest at the bombing of their villages.
Islamist-ruled Turkey (Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, pictured) has been long accused of duplicitously backing Islamic State
If a deliberate provocation, it was also perfectly timed to coincide with this week’s flurry of meetings between French President Francois Hollande and world leaders, including David Cameron, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama and Putin.
Brutality
Hollande’s much anticipated efforts to encourage President Obama to ramp up Washington’s fight against Islamic State and bury the hatchet with Russia — which he has already publicly called for — just became immeasurably more difficult.
It is true that Obama and David Cameron have agreed in principle to Hollande’s request to step up efforts to fight IS.
But yesterday, Obama seemed to justify Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet — reiterating, no doubt to Turkey’s delight, his belief that Russian strikes against ‘moderate’ Syrian opposition ‘only bolsters’ the Assad regime, whose brutality has helped fuel the rise of IS.
So how will Putin respond? Russia’s first retaliatory military act is likely to be a relentless assault on the Turkmen rebels. If and when that happens, for the first time since Russia’s incursion into Syria two months ago, the Russian air force will be brought into direct military conflict with the moderate rebels funded, trained and armed by the West and its allies.
This would occur just as dozens of American Special Forces arrive in Syria to embed themselves with those very same Western-backed anti-Assad rebels.
The prospect of Russia and the West engaging in this way in the military arena can only be met with horror.
Duplicity
The West should focus its attentions on forming an alliance with Russia (above) to defeat ISIS
This scenario also illustrates the desperate consequences of our absurd policy in Syria: relentlessly pushing for the overthrow of Assad while half-heartedly trying to defeat Islamic State, who number among his enemies; and ignoring offers of an alliance with Russia to attack IS, yet turning a blind eye to blatant aggression and duplicity by our own Islamist allies, from despotic Persian Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia to Turkey.
There is now the risk that Turkey, under the guise of saving its Turkmen brothers, may launch its own invasion of northern Syria.
Turkey has shown willing to cross sovereign borders before now — invading northern Iraq in 1995 with 35,000 troops and in the second half of 1997 with tens of thousands of troops.
Indeed, its armed forces — the second largest standing force in Nato after the United States — are more than half a million strong, and the Turkish Air Force alone possesses 19 combat squadrons.
Crucially, other Nato members would be treaty-bound to defend Turkey if it presented any action it took as self-defence.
Russia has no soldiers on the ground in Syria — but that reality could quickly change, too, if Turkey were to invade.
The truth is that we can now see how, with terrifying ease, these two powers could take the world to the brink of World War III.
What is really needed is for the West to focus its attentions not on defeating President Assad — who is of no real threat to us — but instead on forming an international coalition with Russia, in order to crush the extremist forces which have taken root in Syria.
Until then, the soldiers of Islamic State will be rubbing their hands with glee at the sight of the world powers, that should be uniting against them, so bitterly divided.
Russia, however, says its jet was in Syrian airspace and so, too, was the Turkish jet which shot it down.
The shooting down of a Russian plane by an Islamist-ruled dictatorship - to the extent that Turkish football fans could boo and chant ‘Allahu Akbar’ during a minute’s silence for the Paris victims at a friendly match - which has the second largest standing force in Nato and which itself has a history of crossing sovereign borders, such as its incursions into Iraq in 1995, 1997 and 2008, could bring the world to the brink of World War III.
JOHN R BRADLEY: It's terrifying how easily Turkey and Russia could take the world to the brink...
By John R Bradley For The Daily Mail
25 November 2015
Daily Mail
Any hopes the Paris atrocities would force the world’s leaders to put aside their differences over Syria’s devastating war and focus on wiping out Islamic State were dashed yesterday.
Make no mistake: the potential consequences of Turkey’s decision to shoot a Russian fighter jet out of the sky for allegedly violating its airspace near the Syrian border are profoundly chilling.
This unprecedented act by Turkey — the first time in 50 years a Nato country has brought down a Russian jet — is extraordinarily provocative.
Vladimir Putin is furious, using decidedly undiplomatic language to accuse the Turkish leadership of stabbing his country ‘in the back’ and being ‘accomplices of terrorists’.
Fury: Turkey's decision to shoot down a Russian jet is extraordinarily provocative
Outrage
Small wonder leaders in Europe are frantically calling for diplomatic channels to be used to resolve tensions.
But rather than seeing cool heads prevail, in the coming days and weeks we are far more likely to witness dramatically escalating tensions between Russia and the Nato alliance, of which Turkey is a key member.
The seeds of this diplomatic disaster were sown long ago.
Islamist-ruled Turkey is strongly opposed to Russia’s ally, the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and has been long accused of duplicitously backing Islamic State.
But even those in diplomatic circles will be aghast at the situation’s rapid deterioration.
For adding to Russia’s outrage and humiliation, ethnic Turks inside Syria — who are allies of Turkey, enemies of the Assad regime and fierce opponents of Russian airstrikes — also, it seems, committed a blatant war crime, by shooting dead one of the two Russian pilots as they parachuted out.
These supposedly ‘moderate’ Turkmen rebels proceeded to celebrate by firing their machine guns in the air, while abusing the corpse of the pilot and screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘God is the greatest’) in Arabic.
Moreover, just hours after the shooting down of the Russian jet at the Syrian border, a Russian helicopter was downed in another part of Syria by the Western-sponsored Free Syrian Army, using an advanced surface-to-air missile of the kind supplied to them by the thousand by our Persian Gulf allies.
Unsurprisingly, we are now menacingly being told that the Russian defence ministry is ‘devising a set of measures to respond to the incident’.
Repercussions: Vladimir Putin, pictured hours after the attack, described the downing of the jet as a 'stab in the back'
Already the Kremlin is advising its nationals against visiting Turkey. Russians are the second biggest group of visitors to the country, but tour operators have announced all trips have immediately been put on hold.
There is even speculation that Moscow could cut off its gas supplies to Turkey, as it has in the past to punish Ukraine — thus cutting off 20 per cent of its energy supply and causing economic havoc for the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Yet while global attention has, in recent weeks, been on the threats posed by Russia’s entry into Syria, this latest development will rightly focus minds on the ticking bomb that is Turkey — a power with its own worryingly bellicose leader.
For President Erdogan, busy turning his own once staunchly secular country into an Islamist dictatorship — to the extent that Turkish football fans could boo and chant ‘Allahu Akbar’ during a minute’s silence for the Paris victims at a friendly match — the over-riding priority is Assad’s downfall.
He is desperate to get rid of the secular Assad and see a fellow Muslim Brotherhood government installed in Syria, as a valuable ally.
In pursuit of that end, Erdogan has openly supported jihadist groups in Syria opposed to Assad, including the Al-Nusra Front, which is proscribed as a terror organisation by the U.S. and Europe.
Turkey — a nation of 76 million people, which has long been trying to join the EU — is now teeming with Islamic fundamentalists and was, until very recently, turning a blind eye to jihadis from all over the world eager to make their way to join the anti-Assad insurgency in Syria via its border.
The Turkish frontier has long been described as a ‘two-way jihadist highway’ without checks, and the smuggling of weapons and funds through it to Islamic State is widely alleged.
In 2014, a photograph emerged showing what was said to be an Islamic State commander in a hospital bed in Turkey receiving treatment for battle wounds.
In light of all this, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s casual defence of the downing of the Russian fighter jet as a ‘national duty’ rang breathtakingly hollow.
For by any objective measure, a single Russian fighter jet crossing the Turkish border for a matter of seconds would pose no serious threat to Turkey’s sovereignty.
In fact, we should be under no illusion that this act was, in all probability, not so much an act of self-defence as a cold and calculated attempt on Turkey’s part to undermine Russia’s ferocious campaign of airstrikes against Islamic State, as well as its recently formed military alliance with Nato member France.
Crucially, the hostile act came on the back of relentless diplomatic pressure on Moscow — Turkey has been calling for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss Russia’s attacks on the Turkmen stronghold inside Syria and summoned the Russian ambassador to protest at the bombing of their villages.
Islamist-ruled Turkey (Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, pictured) has been long accused of duplicitously backing Islamic State
If a deliberate provocation, it was also perfectly timed to coincide with this week’s flurry of meetings between French President Francois Hollande and world leaders, including David Cameron, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama and Putin.
Brutality
Hollande’s much anticipated efforts to encourage President Obama to ramp up Washington’s fight against Islamic State and bury the hatchet with Russia — which he has already publicly called for — just became immeasurably more difficult.
It is true that Obama and David Cameron have agreed in principle to Hollande’s request to step up efforts to fight IS.
But yesterday, Obama seemed to justify Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet — reiterating, no doubt to Turkey’s delight, his belief that Russian strikes against ‘moderate’ Syrian opposition ‘only bolsters’ the Assad regime, whose brutality has helped fuel the rise of IS.
So how will Putin respond? Russia’s first retaliatory military act is likely to be a relentless assault on the Turkmen rebels. If and when that happens, for the first time since Russia’s incursion into Syria two months ago, the Russian air force will be brought into direct military conflict with the moderate rebels funded, trained and armed by the West and its allies.
This would occur just as dozens of American Special Forces arrive in Syria to embed themselves with those very same Western-backed anti-Assad rebels.
The prospect of Russia and the West engaging in this way in the military arena can only be met with horror.
Duplicity
This scenario also illustrates the desperate consequences of our absurd policy in Syria: relentlessly pushing for the overthrow of Assad while half-heartedly trying to defeat Islamic State, who number among his enemies; and ignoring offers of an alliance with Russia to attack IS, yet turning a blind eye to blatant aggression and duplicity by our own Islamist allies, from despotic Persian Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia to Turkey.
There is now the risk that Turkey, under the guise of saving its Turkmen brothers, may launch its own invasion of northern Syria.
Turkey has shown willing to cross sovereign borders before now — invading northern Iraq in 1995 with 35,000 troops and in the second half of 1997 with tens of thousands of troops.
Indeed, its armed forces — the second largest standing force in Nato after the United States — are more than half a million strong, and the Turkish Air Force alone possesses 19 combat squadrons.
Crucially, other Nato members would be treaty-bound to defend Turkey if it presented any action it took as self-defence.
Russia has no soldiers on the ground in Syria — but that reality could quickly change, too, if Turkey were to invade.
The truth is that we can now see how, with terrifying ease, these two powers could take the world to the brink of World War III.
What is really needed is for the West to focus its attentions not on defeating President Assad — who is of no real threat to us — but instead on forming an international coalition with Russia, in order to crush the extremist forces which have taken root in Syria.
Until then, the soldiers of Islamic State will be rubbing their hands with glee at the sight of the world powers, that should be uniting against them, so bitterly divided.
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