Prelude to World War 3 ?

Turkey says it will take ‘steps’ after determining that Syria shot down missing jet


OSMAN ORSAL/REUTERS - Turkey lost a F-4 warplane, similar to the one pictured, over the Mediterranean on June 22, 2012, and Turkey is investigating whether it crashed or was shot down.


By Liz Sly, The Washington Post

BEIRUT — Turkey vowed to take “necessary steps” after concluding that Syria shot down a Turkish fighter jet near the Syrian border on Friday, sending tensions soaring in the already fraught region.

In a terse statement issued after an emergency security meeting summoned by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish government said that a missing F-4 fighter jet had been brought down by Syria. The statement said Turkey “will make its final position known once the evidence is fully uncovered and will determinedly take necessary steps.”

The fate of the jet’s two pilots was unknown, and Turkey said that Syrian vessels had joined in a massive search operation in the eastern Mediterranean where the plane was thought to have gone down. The Turkish military said earlier that it had lost contact with the warplane shortly before noon as it flew over the southern Turkish province of Hatay.

After Turkey, a NATO member, confirmed the shooting, a Syrian military spokesman issued a statement acknowledging that it had shot the plane down at 11:40 a.m., after it approached Syria at low altitude from the sea.

“An unidentified aerial target violated Syrian airspace, coming from the west at a very low altitude and at high speed over territorial waters, so the Syrian anti-air defenses counteracted with anti-aircraft artillery,” said the statement, carried by the official news agency SANA. The plane was less than a mile away from the Syrian coast when it was hit and it came down about six miles away, in Syrian territorial waters, the statement said.

The incident underscored the region’s jittery mood as the Syrian revolt degenerates into an armed conflict that many fear will spill beyond its borders, draw in its neighbors and perhaps prompt wider international military intervention.

Compounding the tensions, Turkey has emerged as the main conduit for the new supplies of weaponry that are now flowing to Syrian rebels with funds from Saudi Arabia and Qatar and facilitated in part by the United States. More than 30,000 Syrian refugees have flooded into southern Turkey over the past year, and the leadership of the rebel Free Syrian Army is being housed at one of the refugee camps.

It is not the first time Turkey has been ensnared in the violence since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule erupted 15 months ago, souring the once close relationship between Damascus and Ankara. After Syrian forces fired shots across the border into a Syrian refugee camp in April, Turkey threatened to invoke a mutual defense clause in the NATO charter.

Syria seemed eager to downplay the incident. “There was no aggression,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said on his Twitter account. “It was an unidentified target flying at very low range when it violated Syrian airspace.” He also emphasized the role Syrian vessels were playing in helping search for the missing pilots.

The shooting nonetheless comes at a moment of heightened concern about the spiraling violence in Syria in the wake of the collapse of a U.N. peace plan brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan. The U.N. monitors who were dispatched to Syria to observe a now nonexistent cease-fire have been confined to their hotels because it is too dangerous for them to go out, and the Security Council remains divided over what alternatives to pursue.

At a news conference in Geneva, Annan warned that unless the international community agrees on a way forward soon, “it will be too late to stop the crisis from spiraling out of control.”

Among the dozens of deaths reported in Syria on Friday were 25 men who had apparently been executed by rebel forces in a mass killing in the province of Aleppo, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.A video posted on YouTube showed an array of blood-soaked bodies strewn beside a bullet-ridden pick-up on a deserted, unpaved rural road. Some were wearing military fatigues, others jeans and T-shirts. A voice identifies the dead men as “Assad’s shabiha,” a reference to pro-government militias that the opposition blames for much of the violence taking place.

Syria’s state news agency SANA also reported the killings, saying that “armed terrorists” had committed a “brutal massacre” in the Daret Azzeh area of Aleppo, one of several areas in the province that are slipping out of government control.

Special correspondent Suzan Haidamous contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mid ... story.html

"...Situation Turning Ugly Fast"?

revu,
The situation has been ugly for months. It just so happens Assad, another murdering tyrant you sypathize with, has just dug his own grave. Remember Gadaffi the best friend of your favorite tyrant? These butchers are gonna meet the same fate. Good riddance.

dictators.jpg (20.91 KiB) Viewed 616 times

Adwash,
Your Abay Tigray dream has long been dead and buried, so STOP dreaming the dead man's dreams. You're nothing but a black-faced wandering Gypsy at the mercy of his master's whims. This is how I picture you on this forum and its not that far off from how you really are in real life anyways.

Prelude to World War 3 ?

Prelude to WWIII, it is, but probably not the beginning yet, there is a missing prerequisite. Once that is fulfilled planet earth will merge with hell, it will be the toughest time in the history of the world.

When WWIII begins, it will probably look like this.



Russian Geopolitical Analyst: “World War III Has Already Begun”

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/03/28/ru ... ady-begun/

"Our investigation will focus on whether the plane was brought down within our borders or not," Turkey's president Abdullah Gul said. "Because the consequences could be quite serious, there will be no clear statement before the details (of the incident) are scrutinized," Gul said.

The Turkish president added that it was "routine" for jets flying in high-speeds to violate other countries air spaces for short periods of time.

Late Friday, Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, said the military spotted an "unidentified aerial target" that was flying at a low altitude and at a high speed.

"The Syrian anti-air defenses counteracted with anti-aircraft artillery, hitting it directly," SANA said. "The target turned out to be a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian airspace and was dealt with according to laws observed in such cases."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/stor ... 55775334/1

He shot himself in the foot with that one.

Prelude to World War 3 ?

Prelude to WWIII, it is, but probably not the beginning yet, there is a missing prerequisite. Once that is fulfilled planet earth will merge with hell, it will be the toughest time in the history of the world.

When WWIII begins, it will probably look like this.



Russian Geopolitical Analyst: “World War III Has Already Begun”

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/03/28/ru ... ady-begun/

Dear Con, World war III will not happen in our time. Trust me.

Prelude to World War 3 ?

Prelude to WWIII, it is, but probably not the beginning yet, there is a missing prerequisite. Once that is fulfilled planet earth will merge with hell, it will be the toughest time in the history of the world.

When WWIII begins, it will probably look like this.



Russian Geopolitical Analyst: “World War III Has Already Begun”

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/03/28/ru ... ady-begun/

Dear Con, World war III will not happen in our time. Trust me.

Wake up Bro. OJ, the world is about to descend to hell, the signs and warnings are loud and clear, pay attention to them. The good news is, sub-Saharan Africa will be affected the least. For a change fate is about to smile on the black man.

Adwash,
Your Abay Tigray dream has long been dead and buried, so STOP dreaming the dead man's dreams. You're nothing but a black-faced wandering Gypsy at the mercy of his master's whims. This is how I picture you on this forum and its not that far off from how you really are in real life anyways.

Abay who? We're talking about the whole inchelada called the HoA, bro. Here you are, in your permanent state of existance.

revu.jpg (27.03 KiB) Viewed 409 times

In calling for the meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, Turkey said it was invoking Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which provides for consultations by the allies when one of them is attacked or threatened, rather than the much stronger Article 5, in which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all NATO countries.

When will African countries have a similar mutual defense agreement to replace the existing African Union's agreement selling each other off ?




Turkey Warns Syrian Forces Not to Approach Border

By SEBNEM ARSU, ALAN COWELL and PAUL GEITNER
Published: June 26, 2012

ISTANBUL — As the crisis with Syria over the downing of a Turkish warplane showed no sign of easing, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, buoyed by the support of NATO allies, issued a blunt warning to Damascus on Tuesday not to test his country's resolve, threatening to offer a Turkish military response to any perceived threat along their troubled border.

Mr. Erdogan spoke as ambassadors from the NATO alliance held emergency talks in Brussels, called after Syria shot down a Turkish warplane over the Mediterranean Sea.

After the meeting, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance considered Syria's actions "unacceptable" and that NATO countries had "expressed their strong support and solidarity with Turkey," he said.

In Ankara, Mr. Erdogan said Turkey had revised its military rules of engagement toward Syria.

"Every military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria in a manner that constitutes a security risk or danger would be considered as a threat and would be treated as a military target," he said in a speech to lawmakers attended by Arab diplomats.

"From here, we warn the Syrian regime not to make any mistakes, not to test Turkey’s decisiveness and wisdom," Mr. Erdogan said.

"If there is anyone who could not understand this up until today, we would and will prove in the most clear and determined way that Turkey cannot be challenged," he said.

While Syria maintains the plane was brought down well within its airspace, Turkey says the two-seat F-4 fighter plane was attacked over international waters after straying briefly into Syrian space.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has told state-owned TRT television that the aircraft was struck by Syrian antiaircraft fire outside of Syrian airspace. "Our plane was hit in international airspace, 13 nautical miles out of Syria, when Syrian territorial space is 12 miles," he said.

But the Syrian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the airplane was brought down by an antiaircraft weapon with a range of less than two miles.

The two crewmen are still missing after the incident last Friday. News reports said NATO ambassadors would likely condemn the downing of the Turkish jet without ordering measures, such as military action, that would inflame the crisis and turn it into a broader conflict.

Western defense analysts said the incident had shown that, unlike the example of Libya last year, when NATO planes enforced a no-fly zone as rebels pressed for the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Syrian military could likely offer much stiffer resistance.

"After its experience in Libya, NATO certainly does not want to get into another air war with the Syrians, who are in much better shape than the Libyans were to conduct one," said Michael Corgan, a specialist in international security issues at Boston University.

In calling for the meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, Turkey said it was invoking Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which provides for consultations by the allies when one of them is attacked or threatened, rather than the much stronger Article 5, in which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all NATO countries.

The episode risks drawing in Russia, Syria's principal weapons supplier and international champion, which has signaled concern about the NATO meeting. SANA, Syria's state news agency, quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko as saying he hopes NATO will not take measures on Tuesday "that would aggravate situation in Syria" or prevent a political settlement there.

Russia, with Chinese support, has shielded President Bashar al-Assad against the efforts of Western and some Arab nations to press for a settlement that would remove the Syrian leader from office as part of a transition.

The nature of the weapons system that brought down the Turkish plane has not been clearly established. A senior Syrian official said it was a type of machine gun.

Less than two weeks ago, by apparent coincidence, Russia's main arms exporter said it was supplying Syria with defensive missile systems that could bring down airplanes or sink ships.

"I would like to say these mechanisms are really a good means of defense, a reliable defense against attacks from the air or sea,'' Anatoly P. Isaykin, the general director of the company, Rosoboronexport, said Friday in an interview. ''This is not a threat, but whoever is planning an attack should think about this.''

On Monday, Jihad Makdissi, the Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the wreckage of the plane "shows holes in the tail-end of the plane which confirm that it was shot down by a ground-based machine gun, not missiles."

"Had the aircraft been over territorial waters, we would have used missiles, not a land-based antiaircraft machine gun with a maximum range of 2.5 kilometers," he said. "All of this confirms the falsity of the allegations that the aircraft was shot down outside Syrian territorial waters."

In an unsually detailed account on the SANA Web site, Mr. Makdissi said coastal anti-aircraft artillery stationed on Syrian beaches opened fire on the Turkish jet as it sped toward the Syrian coast at a speed of some 500 miles per hour. The airplane was barely above the Meditarrean Sea at an altitude of around 300 feet, Mr. Makdissi said, after dipping below the radar "only to appear suddenly at an altitude of 100 meters, one to two kilometers from the beach and Syrian land, and became suddenly visible to the naked eye."

After it was hit, the plane veered to the left and crashed, he said.

Sebnem Arsu reported from Istanbul, Alan Cowell from London and Paul Geitner from Brussels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/world ... spute.html