In some of the most belligerent comments yet to come out of the nation, Turkish Vice PM Bulent Arinc opened by saying that Turkey has “no intention of going at war with anyone,” then spent the bulk of his comments vowing a path of escalation that would end with NATO declaring war on Syria.
Arinc said that Turkey considered the loss of its warplane, shot down after it violated Syrian airspace, a threat to its territorial integrity, and would “no doubt” demand Article 5 responses from NATO, which would oblige NATO to treat the lost plane as an attack on every single member nation, and would proscribe a retaliatory war.
The details of the downing of the plane are still very much in doubt, with Turkey’s story simply making no sense, as despite claiming that their plane had sped out of Syrian airspace 15 minutes before it was downed, they maintain that the plane was shot down just 1 mile outside of the airspace, lingering it seems. And they still haven’t found the debris despite claiming certainty over where it went down. Syria, for its part, says that the plane went down not that far away, but inside their airspace.
Syria is also saying that they had no idea what the plane was but attacked it in “self defense” because it was speeding toward the Latakia Province at very low altitude. They have also warned NATO against using it as a pretext for escalation.
Which is exactly what some NATO member nations, notably Britain, seem keen to do. British FM William Hague insisted that the loss of the Turkish warplane “proved” the need for regime change in Syria. Britain and France have been pushing for a NATO-imposed regime change for months, and are eager for any excuse that would allow them to avoid the UN imprimatur (which Russia will block) and claim rather that it is Syria who attacked NATO.
Turkey has been hosting Syria’s various rebels for over a year now, and today at least 33 more members of the Syrian military defected to Turkey today, including a general. They will likely join the Free Syrian Army (FSA) as well.
Turkey and its government would love to go back to its dark time when the Turks army massacred more then a million Armenians in world war one, but this time they (the Turkish) are looking forward to go south and expend NATOs militarism into Syria, on their way they need to kill many Kurdish and other minorities, bombing the villages that inhabiting other minorities in the area, bombing cities after another as they did in Armenia. It is not because they are Turks wanting to go to war in Syria or with any other of their neighbors, is just that they are working for NATO and are part of NATO militarism regime.
In the other hand, despite the Turkish government being stupid enough and it's kissing a……sss attitude of the Europeans the Israelis and Saudis, Turkey nor the NATO wouldn't dare to start bombing Syria.
For NATO they made a fool off of the Turkish government wanting to know if Syrian can defend its air space or not by sending the Turkish jet/s to be whacked. Now they know.
Why did they make a country like Turkey a member of NATO when it doesn’t even know what Article 5 is?
Article 5:
Article 5 is at the basis of a fundamental principle of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the Ally attacked.
Was Turkey the victim of an armed attack? Of course not. Its jet violated the airspace of another country and got shut down. Duh… keep your pilots leashed within your own kennel.
If anything, it’s been Syria that has been attacked by Turkish supported armed terrorists.
NATO expansion was the reason for letting Turkey in, Turkey has been trying to get into EU – European Union for sometimes, their application has been denied time after time, so they (EU and US) brought Turkey into NATO – North Atlantic Treaty (Militarism) Organization to be used as a NATO military base facing-defending US and EU interests in that part of the world. The present Turkish government consist of Sunny Muslims whom are the puppet and very dependent, in economical terms, to Saudi Arabia and UAE investments in Turkey, the Turkish government, therefore, is not independent as they claim to be.
Pepe Escobar says "Turkish F-4 Phantom jet shot being down by Syria's anti-aircraft artillery". I thought it was shot down by another plane, but it was artillery, it must have been close indeed.
Additionally, who is flyng F-4s in 2012? That thing was alive during the Vietnam war.
F-4's are still in active inventories in quite a few nations; those combat-proven birds will fly forever if properly maintained, and even though they are badly outclassed as fighters by more modern jets, they are still perfectly capable of performing support and recon missions- and air-to-air against comparable models.
William Hugue is scum. Britain needs slapping down.
This was so predictable Turkish government needs to look at home as tough guys. On the other hand.as Sunnites they want to get rid off with that Syrian "apostate" president and Quatar and Saudis are throwing tons of money to motivate not only Turks, but also all the cannon fodder or so called "rebels" in Syria. So why not make a buck or two.Who cares that innocent people in Syria, Lebanon and maybe even in Turkey itself will be dieing in much greater numbers than they can image. Turks are definitely playing with a fire here on behalf of Israel and USA.
pro·scribe/prōˈskrīb/ Verb: Forbid, esp. by law. Denounce or condemn. Might've meant 'prescribe?'
I know this borders on conspiracy theory, but I have to wonder if that plane wasn't sent on a potential suicide mission to test Syria's response and the state of its air defense network. Given that it was old-school gunnery and not missiles that brought the bird down, it might be an indication that far worse awaits NATO jets that attempt any incursions. Ask John McCain about what happens when you underestimate an air defense network.