Tensions between Russia and Turkey continue to grow precipitously after Tuesday’s shootdown of a Russian bomber over Syrian airspace, with Russia announcing economic sanctions on Turkey in response, and halting a visa-free travel deal for Turkish visitors.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said shooting down one of their planes “crossed the line,” and while they insisted there would be no military retaliation, they intend to curb tourism and trade with Turkey, and are considering slowing down some major energy projects.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for his part, remains unapologetic about shooting down the Russian plane, insisting Russia was “playing with fire” in daring to attack the Syrian rebels in the first place, and accused Russia of being “unfair” in retaliating for it.
Russia is one of Turkey’s largest trading partners, and also a huge source of foreign tourist revenue for the country, and while Erdogan appears determined to not apologize for shooting down a Russian plane, and continues the bellicose rhetoric, he likely will ultimately have to do something to defuse tensions.
Erdogan believes he can behave like a bellicose Goat because he is a member of NATO. He should remember that NATO didn't help him when IOF boarded Turkish vessel in Int. waters, shot 9 Turkish civilians, robbed the passengers, absconded with the vessel and kidnapped senior activists on board.
But remember. The First Commandment of NATO, thou shalt not confront Israel, all Israeli acts are above reproach. The Second Commandment of NATO, Russia must be confronted and ultimately destroyed. All other Commandments of NATO are designed to reinforce and realize the first two…. Erdogan can more or less do whatever he likes regarding Russia. NATO is only looking for excuses to ratchet up tension and fear. That Europe tolerates Turkey will ultimately be its downfall: 3 billion Euros for refugees when its own people have to go without, no visas for Turkish visitors, Turkish accession to the EU, which means that Turkey will be the largest country in Europe regarding both landmass and population and will siphon off huge amounts of subsidies because it is relatively much poorer, while everyone wonders what Turkey actually has to do with Europe except as a honcho player in US Empire's global project.
First Commandment dead on. Second Commandment: Putin certainly must be destroyed and the Russian Federation is a colonial-era dinosaur whose subject-peoples will sooner or later will get their independence, no matter how brutally Putin represses them. Turks don't need visas to enter any Member State of the Council of Europe. Visa-free travel is governed by a C of E convention and has nothing to do with the EU. Incidentally, I don't see Turkey wanting EU membership (even if the EU was willing to give it, which it isn't). Erdogan was elected on a platform of withdrawing Turkey's application. I think he's just selling the withdrawal as dearly as possible.
Well said.
Not even NATO dares to mess with the boss (Israhel)
Erdogan was very rudely reminded of his priorities during the flotilla to Palestine incident, and apparently he was reminded in a particularly humiliating way. Among other things, he was reminded that Turkey has an alliance with the Zionists, and that the alliance with Zionists trumps any Islamic solidarity. Is it any wonder then that his terrorist bands in Syria — all of them hard core Sunni Islamic fundamentalists who lump Jews in with the Crusaders — never make any attacks on Zionists?
Regarding the terrorists in Syria, it is crystal clear that the Russians have not only slaughtered a lot of Turkish/US/NATO terrorist assets, they have also killed a large number of embedded Turkish soldiers who were controlling the terrorist units. This explains the irrational way that Erdogan has flipped out and taken extreme measures to ratchet up a war threat against the Russians.
Crystal clear? Not to me. Please elaborate.
Mikey, the massacre at My Lai would have been difficult for you to discern.
good news! hillary is finally gonna get that no-fly zone over syria.
Except it seems likely to be a Russian zone, keeping out Turkish aircraft, maybe American too.
If anybody puts a no-fly zone over Syria it will be Russia
Nov 27, 2015 Putin Puts Arrogant Reporter in his Place
Russia’s President Putin found himself having to ask BBC journalist John Simpson if he has any common sense at all, as he pushed the establishment line that Russia is an aggressor in the world.
https://youtu.be/VNbt6yXJqP8
Relevance? If Putin's people are so frantic that they have to prop him up with comments un related to the articel, then he must be in deep trouble.
The pot calling the kettle black. You, Michael, are the one who always brings up Putin and Russia in your comments, without regard to their relation to the article.
Michael is a neo-con plant.
As usual, the blundering Putin is cutting off his nose to spite his face! He has to capitulate to Erdogan and tries to cover up his humiliation by imposing sanctions which damage ordinary Russians, who have now lost access to the Turkish holiday resorts and well as the Sinai resorts. He committed exactly the same blunder by imposing counter-sanctions on the EU, which, his American backers told us, was going to bankrupt the dastardly EU and cause millions of Greeks to die of starvation! The loss of the Turkish resorts hits Putin harder than Erdogan. If he prevents his people taking holidays in Turkey, it will do further damage to his standing. Since the Sinai resorts are now effictively off limits to all Europeans, not just Russians, the obvious place for the cheaper end of the market is Turkey, so tourists from the other European countries will take up any slack.
Erdogan's proxy terrorists committed a war crime by shooting and killing the Russian pilot when para-shooting to the ground, proving that Turkey and NATO are state sponsors of terrorism.
Erdogan is whistling past the graveyard. He must know that he cannot defeat Russia in any direct military confrontation with Russia and is hiding behind NATO’s skirts.
If he is counting on NATO to back him with attacks on Russia, perhaps he has not considered whether the other NATO states will see it as in their interest to get into a war with Russia (which would please Washington to no end).
Paris, Brussels, Rome, Berlin all know that Russia has a first strike nuclear doctrine for any attack by NATO. So those countries have to consider whether they are willing to become a radioactive wasteland in order to protect Erdogan from the consequences of his provocations and to protect his income stream from trafficking in stolen Syrian oil received from ISIS as well as his support of ISIS terrorism.
My money says they will not and Erdogan will find himself alone with his back to the wall and facing a very angry bear.
War is always playing with fire.
Erdogan was part of the original war, before Russia. Erdogan enlarged the warlike actions by shooting down a Russian plane. He has just been burned by the fire he has played in.
Maybe Putin will be burned too. Everyone else has been. But Erdogan is the one burned just now.
Putin will not be hurt in Syria . Russia has come out looking like the worlds guardian angel .!st Putin negotiated the surrender of Asad's poisonous gas . This stopped Obama from bombing Syria because Obama's red line had been crossed . This probably prevented Obama from making a terrible mistake because it now is looking like it was not Asad that used this gas but rather the terrorist forces . Syria has asked Russia to help them and Russia has asked the world community to help them . Russia knows very well what they are doing and whom they are fighting . Russia has insisted we first have to form a list of which rebel forces of the free Syrian army are to be considered terrorists and who is not . The United States is going to be forced to go along with Russia or admit they don't think AlQaedia , Al Nursa and the other head Choppers are terrorists .
Who is without blame in the Syria fiasco? All the NATO supported “rebels” that were ferried by Hillary from Libya through Turkey to create the chaos tool to destabilize and defeat any established order with murder and meyham. Is there anyone that thinks what Syria needs is more arms and war
Jason do you have a reason for my comments being pre approved before being posted ,[most of them are not posted at all }. Will you please tell me the reason for these special precautions .
[moderator’s note: Eric, Jason doesn’t moderate comments. Others, including me, do. IntenseDebate enforces two sets of rules. The first is internal, relating to how it evaluates possible spam, and we have little control over it. The second involves trigger words, etc. that we set and which result in comments being held for evaluation; as well as a ban list for repeat offenders versus our guidelines. The only way around those automatic holds, etc. is for a particular user to be “whitelisted.” You’ve been around here long enough to merit that, but you’d have to have, and be logged into when commenting, either an IntenseDebate account or WordPress account – TLK]