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June 23rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
“Even if we assume that there was a violation of Syria’s airspace –
though the situation is still not clear – the Syrian response cannot be to
bring down the plane,” Mr Celik told reporters. “The incident is
unacceptable,” he said. “Turkey cannot endure it in silence.”
Mr Erdogan flew home from Brazil to hold an emergency briefing with his
intelligence and military chiefs after radio and radar contact was lost with
the aircraft as it conducted a mission close to the Syrian coast.
“Following the evaluation of data provided by our related institutions
and the findings of the joint search and reduce efforts with Syria, it is
understood that our plane was downed by Syria,” his office said in a
statement.
The deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, added that contrary to reports, the
plane was not a fighter jet but a reconnaissance aircraft.
Syria confirmed that it had brought down the plane, saying in a statement: “Our
air defences confronted a target that penetrated our air space over our
territorial waters pre-afternoon on Friday and shot it down. It turned out
to be a Turkish military plane.”
In a sign that it was aware of the gravity of the situation, Syria seemed to
be trying to repair the damage, deploying vessels to join a search and
rescue operation to locate the aircraft’s two pilots in the waters off its
coast.
The incident represented the fulfilment of one of the international
community’s greatest fears after months of predictions that the Syrian
conflict could easily burst its borders.
Western powers, and particularly the United States, are likely to come under
pressure to support Turkey should it choose to retaliate with military
force. Mr Erdogan’s government has long warned that it would not tolerate
any Syrian challenge to its security.
The Turkish press has reacted relatively cautiously to the incident. While
some headlines said: “Damascus playing with Fire” and “They
will pay for it”, the overall coverage was not as angry as it sometimes
is in responding to attacks by Kurdish rebels in south-east Turkey.
Soli Ozel, a columnist at the Haberturk newspaper and Professor of
International Relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University, said it was
unlikely that the incident would be declared an act of war and that the
Turkish government was seeking a way to avoid a further escalation of the
crisis.
“If you deem it is an act of war you will go to war. That is why I do not
think they will deem it an act of war. There are plenty of people who have
written in media that we should retaliate and attack, but I don’t really
think that this is the mood in the country.”
As a member of Nato, Turkey could potentially invoke Chapter V of the
alliance’s treaty which states that an attack on one state would be viewed
as an attack on all signatories of the alliance.
But because the clause dictates that such an attack must be carried out on
European or American soil, Mr Erdogan is unlikely to make such demands of
his Western allies.
But he could well invoke Chapter IV of the treaty, which allows a member state
to convene an emergency summit of the whole alliance if “the security
of any of the parties is threatened”.
Turkey came close to doing so in April after Syrian forces opened fire into
its territory, wounding two Turkish nationals and two Syrians at a refugee
camp close to the borders.
It was persuaded not to do so by the United States, but is likely to be less
malleable now. In return for agreeing to allowing Saudi and Qatari funnel
weapons to the rebels through its territory, Mr Erdogan sought and received
assurances that America would protect Turkey from any Syrian backlash,
according to Western officials.
Turkey, which has been at the forefront of regional efforts to oust Mr Assad
and has given sanctuary to rebels seeking his overthrow, could also try to
revive previous efforts to win international support for a buffer zone in
Syria’s border regions.
Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus in March as relations between the two
countries deteriorated, and in late May, expelled Syria’s diplomats. There
is, however, still a Turkish consulate operating in Aleppo.
Meanwhile on Saturday, Syrian army forces battled rebels and shelled
neighbourhoods in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, killing at least 28
people, opposition activists said. The victims, who included three women and
several children, were mostly civilians killed when shells hit their houses
in the city’s Old Airport and al-Hamidya districts, a source at a city
hospital told Reuters.
Loyalist forces have lost control of parts of the surrounding Deir al-Zor
province, which borders Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland as alliances between
President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling elite and Sunni tribes have collapsed.
The fighting came as President Assad issued a decree to form a new government,
shaking up many cabinet posts but keeping the heads of the interior, defence
and foreign ministries.
The reappointment of defence minister, Daoud Rajha, will quash widespread
rumours that he had been killed by a rebel hit squad.
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