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June 24th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Turkey’s robust response was welcomed by Britain and some of its European
allies. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, described the incident as “outrageous”
and warned Syria that it would face serious consequences.
“The Assad regime should not make the mistake of believing that it can
act with impunity,” he said. “It will be held to account for its
behaviour. The UK stands ready to pursue robust action at the United Nations
Security Council.”
European Union foreign ministers, who will meet on Monday to discuss the
incident, were similarly direct in the criticism of Syria. Giulio Terzi,
Italy’s foreign minister, said the shooting down of the jet was a “further
extremely serious and unacceptable action by the Assad regime.”
But there were calls for caution too, with Guido Westerwelle, the German
foreign minister, saying: “Everything must be done to ensure that there
won’t be any further escalation in the already tense region.”
Turkey has not yet revealed what measures it will take against Syria, nor what
role Nato should play in them.
Diplomats suggested that Turkey would be more likely to seek political backing
from Nato allies for whatever diplomatic or military steps it chooses to
take.
There has been no suggestion that Turkey would invoke Article V of the Nato
charter, which states that an attack on one member should be regarded as an
attack on all, and could lead to military action by the entire alliance. The
United States remains the only country to invoke the clause, doing so the
day after the 9/11 attacks and paving the way for the Nato mission in
Afghanistan.
Any attempt by Turkey to follow suit, even if it wanted to, would struggle to
win UN legitimacy because Syria could mount an argument that it acted in
self-defence.
The details of the incident remain in dispute. Turkey admitted that the
aircraft had briefly and inadvertently entered Syrian territory. But Mr
Davutoglu said the plane was shot down in international airspace and accused
Syria of breaking all conventions over how to respond to an encroachment of
his territory.
Syria neither made any attempt to communicate with the Turkish fighter, nor
did it scramble its own air force, he said.
“According to our conclusions, our plane was shot down in international
airspace, 13 nautical miles from Syria,” he said.
“The plane did not show any sign of hostility towards Syria and was shot
down about 15 minutes after having momentarily violated Syrian airspace.
“The Syrians knew full well that it was a Turkish military plane and the
nature of its mission.”
But Syria insisted that it had acted within its rights, and denied accusations
that it had seen Turkish markings on the fighter.
“What happened was an accident and not an assault as some like to say,
because the plane was shot while it was in the Syrian airspace and flew over
Syrian territorial waters,” said Jihad Makdissi, the Syrian foreign
ministry’s spokesman.
Turkey said the wreckage of the plane had been identified – within Syrian
waters – but that it lay thousands of feet below the surface of the sea.
Both pilots are still missing, raising public anger in Turkey.
Whatever the truth of the case, the incident will give Western powers greater
justification to pursue Syria through the Security Council. Russia has twice
blocked resolutions seeking to impose sanctions on the Assad regime, but has
conspicuously refrained from making any official comment about Friday’s
incident.
Turkey could also use the loss of its fighter to renew its case for the
imposition of an internationally-policed buffer zone in Syrian territories
along the border.
Western powers toyed with the idea in the past, but chose instead to support a
UN-backed ceasefire plan brokered by Kofi Annan, the international envoy to
Syria.
But with that plan considered to have failed after a surge of violence in
Syria, Western states are looking for alternatives and could be persuaded to
back the Turkish idea, analysts said.
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