Re: Turkey shot down Russian fighter jet over Syria
Russian Warplanes Target Turkish Weapons Convoy in Syria
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940905000392
The airstrikes hit the trucks which were carrying weapons from Turkey to the Takfiri terrorists fighting in Syria near Azaz town in Aleppo on Wednesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, sources said the Syrian Army and its allies have significantly advanced against the ISIL militants in the Eastern part of Aleppo province and have won back the important Humaymah hilltop.
Humaymah al-Kabeera is strategically located to the East of the Kuweires Military Airport and to the West of the ISIL stronghold of Deir Hafer.
The Aleppo-Raqqa highway is passing through the middle of Humaymah al-Kabeera town.
Shoot Down of Russian Plane Could 'Finish' Turkey's Erdogan Politically
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151125/1030736863/shoot-down-su-24-political-consequences.html
After the plane was downed, one pilot –Lt. Col Oleg Peshkov, was killed by armed militants as he parachuted to the ground. His co-pilot, Cap. Konstantin Murahtin, was rescued and returned to Hmeymim Airbase in Latakia. A second Russian serviceman, Naval Infantry soldier Alexandr Pozynich, was killed in the course of the operation to rescue the surviving pilot.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin calling the attack "a stab in the back" and saying that Russia will be making use of "all security options," experts have been contemplating what other steps, both military and political, Russia might take to respond to the provocation.
Gevorg Mirzayan, geopolitical analyst at Russian business and analysis magazine Expert.ru, believes that whatever steps it ends up taking, Moscow must respond to the crisis "symmetrically."
Mirzayan explained that that the attack was "not just a demonstration of the destruction of a Russian airplane by a NATO member; it is a demonstration of destruction on the eve of a scheduled meeting of a Russian-Turkish group on strategic dialogue, which was to be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov."
"Thus," the analyst explained, "Ankara has factually shown that it is not counting on any dialogue with Moscow, and is actually changing its vector of relations with Russia from one of cooperation to one of confrontation. And this means that Russia must respond within the framework of this confrontational logic."
In Mirzayan's view, the "most obvious response would be one which is symmetrical. It is no secret that Turkish planes regularly enter Syrian territory to bomb the Kurds. Perhaps it would be proper now to see some of these aircraft falling out of the sky, shot down by air defense facilities provided by Moscow, or even Russian fighters charged with protecting Syrian airspace."
Then, according to Mirzayan, there is the economic option. With Egypt effectively closed to Russian tourists following the downing of the Russian Airbus over Sinai last month, Turkish businesses in the tourism sector had hoped for increasing their incomes from Russian tourists.
"Turkey is in a very difficult situation geopolitically."
"Relations with the EU have been spoiled, the Americans are ready to support the Syrian Kurds (up to and including, according to some experts, Ankara's nightmare scenario: the establishment of a Syrian Kurdistan), relations with Syria are beat up, and Turkish-Iranian relations have been ruined. In this situation," the expert notes, "a conflict with Russia may mean real political isolation for Turkey, and may very well lead to serious political consequences for the president."
Units of the U.S. army entered Syria from Turkey
http://fortruss.blogspot.ru/2015/11/units-of-us-army-entered-syria-from.html
50 soldiers of the U.S. army crossed the border of Syria from Turkey and occupied the Syrian town of Ein al-Arab. It was reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the channel "al-Mayadeen". According to the Agency, the military moved past a checkpoint on the Turkish-Syrian border.
"About 50 soldiers and officers of the American army arrived in Ein al-Arab to support the Kurds in the fight against ISIS", — stated in the message.
According to TV, the soldiers of the U.S. army crossed the Turkish-Syrian border through the checkpoint "BINAR", some soldiers had reached the town of Kamishli.
Russian FM Wants to Know If US Greenlighted Turkish Ambush of Su-24 Warplane
http://russia-insider.com/en/sergej-lavrov-wants-know-if-turkey-asked-us-permission-shoot/ri11455
Sergei Lavrov Wednesday made some important statements regarding the chain of events occurred in the SU-24 downing and after witnessing the immediate deployment into service, for a defensive purpose, of the S-400 complex and Moskva, we now witness the first steps of the diplomatic effort made by Moscow to understand exactly what happened.
First he said:
“Some members of the coalition, including those providing their combat planes for strikes against Iraq and Syria have confided to us the planes involved were of US manufacture and the Americans normally request US permission for such operations”
Then Lavrov went even further posing a direct question:
“As far as I understand, our plane was downed by a US-made F-16. It remains to be seen whether the US requirement is applicable to Turkey, and if it is, I would like to know if Turkey had asked the United States for permission to send its planes on a combat mission and to shoot down a plane, albeit probably an identified one, over Syrian territory.”
The implications posed by Lavrov's doubts are important and should not be underestimated by western powers. They directly call into question the possible liability of the USA in Ankara's military action and If this were to be the case, the SU-24 downing would take quite a different twist.
Top U.S. Air Defense Commander: Turkey’s Shootdown of Russian Jet “Had to Be PRE-PLANNED” (video)
http://investmentwatchblog.com/top-u-s-air-defense-commander-turkeys-shootdown-of-russian-jet-had-to-be-pre-planned/
Lt. General Tom McInerney is an expert on handling threats from fighter jets.
In his role as Norad commander for Alaska, McInerney dealt with more Russian fighter jet incursions (which he calls “bear penetrations”) than anyone else in the world.
So McInerney knows how to tell innocent from hostile incursions by foreign fighter jets, standard rules of engagement of foreign fighter jets, how to read radar tracks, and the other things he would need to know to form an informed opinion about the shootdown of a foreign jet.
Yesterday, McInerney told Fox News – much to the surprise of the reporter interviewing him – that assuming the Turkish version of the flight path of the Russian jet is accurate, Russia wasn’t threatening Turkey, and that Turkey’s shoot down of the Russian jet “had to be pre-planned”, as the jet wasn’t in Turkish air space long enough for anything other than a premeditated attack to have brought it down: (video)
McInerney is right … especially given that a U.S. official told Reuters that the Russian jet was inside of Syria when it was shot down:
The United States believes that the Russian jet shot down by Turkey on Tuesday was hit inside Syrian airspace after a brief incursion into Turkish airspace, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Turkey Downs Russian Fighter to Draw NATO and US Deeper into Syrian Quagmire
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/turkey-downs-russian-fighter-to-draw-nato-and-us-deeper-into-syrian-quagmire/
The downing of the Su-24 fighter jet is part of a broader plan by the administration of Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan to topple the secular government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and to establish “safe zones” on the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border. Erdogan needs the safe zones to provide a sanctuary for the militant extremists who are the footsoldiers in his war against Syria. The downing of the Russian fighter is a desperate attempt by Erdogan to incite a reaction from Russia that will draw either NATO or the United States deeper into a conflict which has dragged on for 4 and a half years and killed 250,000 people.
Syrian FM: Killing of Russian pilot in Syria amounts to war crime (video)
http://investmentwatchblog.com/syrian-fm-killing-of-russian-pilot-in-syria-amounts-to-war-crime/
Syria’s foreign minister has backed Russia in its fight against terrorism and accused Turkey of supporting terrorist groups on Syrian soil.
Ankara Demands Arrest of Journalists for Publishing Weapon Convoy to Syria
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151126/1030813680/turkey-photos-convoy-journalists.html
A Turkish prosecutor has requested an Istanbul court to arrest Cumhuriyet newspaper Editor-in-Chief Can Dundar and the daily’s Ankara representative Erdem Gul on charges of espionage and treason after the outlet published photos of intelligence trucks with weapons bound for Syria, local media reported Thursday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Earlier in the day, both journalists went to Istanbul Courthouse to testify after being summoned there.
"We came here to defend journalism. We came here to defend the right of the public to obtain the news and their right to know if their government is feeding them lies. We came here to show and to prove that governments cannot engage in illegal activity and to defend this," Dundar told reporters as quoted by Today’s Zaman.
The article and footage released by Cumhuriyet on May 29 claimed that the trucks were carrying containers with artillery shells, machine gun rounds, and mortar shells to Syrian rebels fighting against the government forces.
Ankara refuted the media reports, insisting that the vehicles were delivering aid to Syrian Turkmens and the allegations were nothing but insinuations.
Turkish Government Caught Helping ISIS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHyKFpEl95w
Published on Jul 29, 2015
Cenk Uygur (host of The Young Turks) discusses a recent report of Turkish officials helping ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Cenk breaks down the evidence that Turkey turned a blind eye to the vast smuggling networks and may have even cooperated.
Fixed Bolding
