Russia is once again warning Turkey against “provocations” tonight after an incident in the Aegean Sea, just off the coast of Lemnos, Greece, in which an anchored Russian destroyer opened fire on a Turkish fishing boat that came too close.
Russian officials reported that the Smetlivy was anchored off the coast of Lemnos when it noticed the Turkish fishing boat, the Geciclier-1, approaching to within a kilometer. They failed to respond to radio contact and semaphore, as well as flares fired by the destroyer. When the ship reached about 500 meters, the destroyer fired small arms “warning shots,” at which time they say the Geciclier-1 dramatically changed course.
Oddly enough, the captain of the fishing boat not only confirmed they weren’t in communication with the destroyer, but insisted he was totally unaware his ship had come under fire either. He offered no explanation for why a fishing boat would approach the destroyer to begin with, but said he didn’t know it was Russian.
Tensions between Russia and Turkey have been rising since last month, when Turkish warplanes shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syrian airspace. One of the pilots was killed by Syrian Turkmen rebels, who are backed by the Turkish government.
The idea that a Russian dstroyer would open fire on a fishing boat shows just how terrified the Russians are of Turkey! It also shows the extent of incompetence in the Russian military going all the way back to the Tsars' time. In 1904, the Baltic Fleet was dispatched to the Far East, where Russia was at war with Japan (do you need to ask who won?). While sailing through the North Sea, they opened fire on, and sank, British fishing boats, mistaking them for Japanese destroyers! This present incident just makes the Russians look ridiculous.
So what does that make the US then? It had it's ships chasing Iranian patrol ships in the Persian Gulf, one in particular entering Iranian territorial waters. The same ship later shot down a civilian airliner killing all aboard. More recently a US naval ship had to flee the Black sea when a Russian plane shut down it's electronics. Now it's harassing the Chinese navy in the south China Sea. The US looks a lot worse than ridiculous or incompetent. They look like the murderous bullies they are.
Superficially, this strikes me like maybe Turkey is intentionally attempting to provoke the Russians into something Turkey can then go to NATO with – regardless of who started it. Who gains from another world war – except the war machine facilitators?
There have always been wackjobs in control of countries, a couple here, a couple there but it seems to me that at this time, in these circumstances there are more wackjobs exhibiting serious wackjob-ness…similar to water in a flushed toilet; the closer it gets to the drain, the whirlpool gets faster and more violent.
As an Australian I have had the United States Hospital ship Mercy charge a 50 cal M2 Machine gun and aim it at the fishing boat that I was on! We were INSIDE Darwin Harbour well within Australian Waters in fact its technically at law an Estuary! Michael Kenny how would you spin that if it wasn't for the Northern Territory Police boat literally getting in the way between us and the US Naval ship! The Boat skipper wasn't contacted, there were NO FLARES and the Police were screaming into their radios NOT TO SHOOT! So any American that makes any comment remember this America will in fact do the exact same thing even in Allied waters to allied shipping! Now America claims it had every right to do so, as such if they claim the right to do such an act on allied shipping then Russia has every right to do exactly the same thing!
Michael Kenny just has to call to memory the USS Cole in the Persian Gulf to see how retarded his take is.