Atlas Monitor | 29 Nov 2015
Russian plane never violated Turkish airspace
Turkey’s shoot down of a Russian military plane, for allegedly violating Turkish territory and by implication sovereignty, illustrates the idiotic logic and warped hypocrisy of Turkish President Erdogan and his allies.
Turkey unilaterally claims control of 8km of airspace and 15km on the ground inside a 500km section of the Syrian border. So if Russia “violated” Turkish territory it is precisely because of Turkey’s warped definition of what constitutes a border as well as territory. Furthermore, the fact that the Russian pilots landed four kilometers inside Syrian territory after ejecting seriously challenges Turkey’s version of events.
Claims of the existence of ‘moderate rebels’ such as the Turkmen brigades are becoming patently dubious after insurgents shot at and killed one of the Russian pilots as well as destroying the Russian rescue helicopter in clear violation of the Geneva Convention.
The fact that jihadi extremists have been the driving force behind the Syrian opposition from the beginning of the crisis is abundantly clear in Pentagon documents. What is also clear is that the US and its allies backed these insurgents and knew that by doing so would lead to the rise of ISIS. The head of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the time confirmed that the Obama administration made a conscious and ‘willful decision’ to back these jihadi extremists.
If the violation of a country’s airspace is such an issue one might examine Turkey’s routine violation of Greek airspace – over 2000 times in 2014. After Syria shot down a Turkish fighter that had violated Syrian territory in 2012 Erdogan himself stated that ‘a short-term border violation can never be a pretext for an attack’.
Claims by Ankara that it did not identify the nationality of the jet before shooting it down is simply not believable and even more concerning if that is in fact the case.
The shoot down of the Russian plane looks to be a planned and staged provocation given that the jet “violated” Turkish “territory” for only 17 seconds. Contrast this with the US giving ISIS a 45 minute warning they were going to bomb a convoy of trucks.
It is also an open secret that Turkey allows ISIS to use “Turkish territory” to not only plan and conduct attacks but as a trading floor and transit route for oil ISIS steals from Syria and sells into the black market. It is also known that Erdogan’s son is a major middleman brokering oil deals for ISIS and affiliate groups.
Incidentally, Erdogan’s daughter is involved with hospitals that treat wounded jihadi soldiers.
That area where the Russian plane was shot down is in the same area where Turkey imports ISIS oil. It is also the same location where ISIS is being routed by Russia and her allies who have dealt a crippling blow to the Erdogan “family business”.
The Erdogan regime recently arrested and charged with espionage several Turkish journalists exposing Turkey’s involvement in illegal weapons shipment to jihadi extremists. This folllows Erdogan’s attempts to ban Twitter and YouTube in Turkey.
The Erdogan regime is a corrupt kleptocracy with a leader that has delusions of heading a Middle East caliphate and yet is tolerated by the West and her allies for geopolitical expedience.
Western officials acknowledge that “links between Turkey’s and ISIS are now undeniable”.
Only time will tell if these Faustian pacts unravel.
