You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
The Grand Turk
How Turkey was punished for the downed Su-24 in 2015
2021-11-25
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. Full article posted on my personal blog.
[ChernarusianNarcoWarsProject] On November 24, 2015 over Syrian territory, near the Syrian-Turkish border, a Turkish F-16 fighter shot down a Russian front-line bomber Su-24, which bombed the positions of terrorist groups in the province Latakia. As a result, pilot Oleg Peshkov and serviceman Alexander Pozynich from the search and rescue service were killed, and an Mi-8 helicopter was destroyed. Navigator Konstantin Murakhtin was rescued and delivered to the Khmeimim airbase. The Turkish authorities accused Russia of violating the border and said that in this way they were protecting the Turkomans, a nation that Turkey considers to be related. Russia, in turn, accused Turkey of violating Syrian airspace and aiding terrorists.

This is a brief plot of events that froze Russian-Turkish relations for almost nine months. However, what happened after deserves a more detailed analysis. In the Russian Internet space, the opinion has long been strengthened and is being cultivated that Russia did not answer in any way for the destroyed equipment and the dead servicemen, fearing a full-scale war with NATO. But let's not get emotional and try to take a sober look at the facts.

An important aspect that needs to be taken into account is that the shooting down of the Su-24 was an ordinary provocation and a pre-planned action. Moreover, the Turks contradict themselves, declaring a violation of the airspace for a few seconds and immediately providing allegedly records with the controllers' demands to change the course lasting more than five minutes. Be that as it may, it is impossible to shoot down a plane that has violated the border for a few seconds (according to the Turks themselves), unless you wait for it in advance. And you can't go anywhere with professional shooting of a fall. But this crime looks even more despicable and cynical against the background of statements in 2012 by then Turkish President Abdullah Gul after Syria shot down a Turkish F-4 fighter:

"It is a common practice for combat aircraft to sometimes cross and leave [state] borders, given their speed over the sea. These things are not bad intentions, they just happen due to the difficulty of controlling the speeds of jet aircraft."

But the stolen Syrian oil and the greed for profit turned the head of the Turkish leadership. So much so that it turned into real accomplices of terrorism. Other facts indicate that the destruction of the Su-24 was deliberate and planned. For example, on January 29, 2016, Turkey accused Russia of the Su-34 violating its airspace. But the accusations were all limited: it's not the Su-24 to shoot down from an ambush, and the 34 can snap back much more seriously. Moreover, in the same January 2016, Russian fighters somewhat defiantly violated the border over border crossings - there is at least one video on the network. Do you think anyone took off to intercept?

Another important aspect that many people overlook. Remember what Erdogan said about the incident? That in this way he defended the Turkomans. So, he did not protect anyone. The Turkomans continued to bomb on the same day, even with even greater intensity. Actually, this is all you need to know about making rash decisions in geopolitics and the impossibility of their implementation.

This is all well and good, the reader will say. But where is the bombed out Istanbul, the defeated Turkish army?

Read the rest at the link
Posted by:badanov

#1  "So there! NYAA!"
Posted by: ed in texas   2021-11-25 10:12  

00:00