A Saturday incident in which Russian warplanes made a pair of incursions into Turkish airspace during the course of airstrikes against ISIS targets in northern Syria has fueled an angry condemnation from the US and NATO, which held an emergency meeting today warning of “extreme danger” from such an occurrence.
The Russian Defense Ministry sought to downplay the incident, saying the crossover was brief, lasting only a few seconds, and was an accident related to changing weather conditions in the area along the border. A spokesman accused those seeing a bigger problem as looking for “conspiracy theories.”
US officials insisted they don’t believe that it was an accident at all, and Turkey suggested they could respond by attacking any future Russian warplanes that cross the border, and shoot them down. They went on to insist that it would be Russia’s fault if any “undesired incident” occurs to their planes.
Russia began airstrikes against ISIS targets last week, fueling condemnation from US officials. US officials have insisted that Russian strikes threaten to further escalate the Syrian Civil War, and are ruling out coordination with the Russians when they conduct their own airstrikes.
they say putin is a master of chess, while obama plays checkers with
both hands tied behind kerry's back. well, kerry has fallen right into the trap!
this is an interesting story, but the more important bit of news come
from kerry's comments in chile: "We're greatly concerned about it because
it is precisely the kind of thing that had Turkey responded under its rights could
have resulted in a shoot-down."
nato warplanes have flown thousands of sorties into the sovereign airspace of
syria over the past six months. none have been legal, as all have been without
permission of the syrian government.
for the past six weeks, putin has been moving aircraft with air-air capabilities,
and air defense systems (S300, perhaps S400) into syria. i suspect it won't
be long before assad warns nato that warplanes violating syrian territory
risk being shot down.
your move, obama. (no, we don't "king me" in this game!)
Isn't NATO in violation of Syria's air space?
Would someone explain to us peeons–why Turkey is part of North Atlantic treaty
Russia's problem is that the Black Sea is an enclosed sea. You can't get in or out of it without crossing Turkish territory and getting from Russia to Syria without overflying Turkey means taking a long, roundabout route via the Caspian, Iran and Iraq, probably with an internmediate fuel stop. The whole reason why Putin wanted to "help" fight ISIS was that by doing so, he would have automatic permission to overfly Turkey. Clearly, the Turks are not going to give Putin permission to overfly and the incursion was probably a test to see how Turkey would react. If he starts to threaten Turkey, as is his wont, he could give himself another problem. Under the Montreux Convention, the Turkish Straits are open to the ships, both civilian and military, of all Black Sea countries except in time of war or when Turkey feels threatened. If Putin pushes Turkey too far, the Turks could simply close the Straits to Russian shipping. Putin is getting ever more entangled in the web of his own blunders.
Violating airspace? And they say this with a straight face no less?
Turkey is part of NATO. They don't make decisions, they do what they are told.
Once again, Washington and NATO show the world that they are completely insane.
If the interventionist really wanted a war with Russia. This is how to do it. NATO would have to come to the aid of Turkey and the next big world war begins.