Turkey downplays ‘ill intentions,’ says downed jet may have violated Syrian airspace
Turkey downplays ‘ill intentions,’ says downed jet may have violated Syrian airspace.
(Sure. Just an “honest mistake.” Remember Turkey’s reaction to Israel’s stopping the boat load of terrorists a year ago? Turkey really makes we want to puke. – JW )
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul said Saturday the jet fighter shot down by Syria might have violated Syrian airspace.
“It is routine for jet fighters to sometimes fly in and out over (national) borders … when you consider their speed over the sea,” Gul told Anatolia news agency. “These are not ill-intentioned things but happen beyond control due to the jets’ speed.”
He said Anakara has made a telephone contact with Syria.
However, the president also heightened his tone when he said that it is not “possible to ignore Turkish fighter jet being downed by Syria,” and that whatever is needed to be done following downing of the fighter jet will be done.
On Saturday, Syria confirmed that it shot down a Turkish warplane over its territory, sparking a fresh crisis on the two countries’ long border which is already awash with refugees and rebel fighters.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said NATO member Turkey would take all necessary steps once it had established the facts of Syria’s downing of the F-4 fighter jet in Mediterranean waters on Friday.
Tensions between the two neighbors were already running high as Ankara has taken a tough line on Damascus’s bloody crackdown on a 15-month-old uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, giving sanctuary to defecting military personnel who have formed the kernel of an expanding rebel army.
Syria’s official SANA news agency confirmed that Damascus had downed the jet in a terse report early on Saturday.
“An unidentified aerial target violated Syrian air space, coming from the west at a very low altitude and at high speed over territorial waters,” the news agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.
Turkey has denied that it is arming Syrian opposition, however the New York Times reported on Thursday that a small number of CIA officers had been deployed to southern Turkey, where they were helping U.S. allies decide which Syrian opposition elements should receive weapons deliveries.
WarSclerotic 
June 23, 2012 at 1:26 PM
what a spineless cretinous coward,hes only good for harassing israel his syrian friends have turned on him,i think its hilariously funny that when he sent a ship full of terrorists to gaza and cut off ties with israel that he left his air force vulnerable to russian air defenses,i would say that once blame starts sinking in it will be the end of him and his scum
June 23, 2012 at 1:32 PM
… And this may still be considered a gentle comment regarding the turk leader.
June 23, 2012 at 2:20 PM
So let it be written; so let it be done…
June 23, 2012 at 2:34 PM
To JW: “Israel’s stopping the boat load of terrorists a year ago”
Israel boarded the vessels with peaceactivists more than 200 km from the Israeli coast in International Waters, Syria downed a Turkish spy plane in Syrian airspace. Israel made a huge blunder by not waiting until the flotilla was in Israel’s territorial waters
June 23, 2012 at 3:11 PM
Israel acted in conformation with the sea rules of engagement.
And in the case you didn’t live in a cave in the last couple of years, those ” pacifists ” were hooligans – read terrorists – who attacked the israeli sea men with weapons which were prepared with the intention to kill.
There is a limit even to my famous patience regarding to the sh…t that people like you are trying to fed us.
June 23, 2012 at 5:22 PM
You should improve your English reading skills before blowing your top. I never used the word ‘pacifists’ nor did I write that Israel broke any laws. I merely stated the obvious, and that is that Israel made a huge blunder by not waiting until the flotilla was in Israel’s territorial waters. Obviously there was no need whatsoever to board the ships in International Waters, and then tow them to an Israeli port.
The fact that no weapons were found only added to Israel’s humiliation and loss of face. Then I recommend you look up the definition of the word ‘terrorist’ in an English dictionary, and you will find that none of the people aboard the Mavi Marmara came close to being a terrorist.
Furthermore I advice you to read the recent report about all the mistakes that Israel made in the run up to, as well as in the execution of the flotilla raid.
June 13, 2012
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s outgoing state comptroller issued a report highly critical of the government’s handling of the Mavi Marmara Turkish aid flotilla to Gaza in 2010.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/06/13/3098096/israel-mishandled-gaza-flotilla-incident-comptroller-report-finds
June 23, 2012 at 3:22 PM
Luis…
Believe it or not, Renbe is the only one of the opponents of Israel’s policy that writes in a way that allows me to include his comments. It is important to hear the view of the “other side.” Unfortunately, all the others are filled with vile antisemitism or threats of death.
While I don’t agree with practically anything Renbe writes, I appreciate his level tone.
Renbe, I appreciate your contribution here…
June 23, 2012 at 3:49 PM
I understand what you mean and i respect your considerations.
June 23, 2012 at 6:06 PM
Joseph,
Thank you for your wise words. I am not a party in the conflict, and try to be a neutral observer, even though I am aware of the fact that in general I defend the underdog’s point of view. Doing this, I do my utmost to avoid rude language or insults. Many people that defend Israel’s points of view refuse to even acknowledge that there is another side to the story, and it is this attitude that lowers Israel’s standing in the eyes of the world, and makes an honest settlement of the conflicts with the Palestinians and Iran even more remote. War and violence is not the answer.
June 23, 2012 at 8:34 PM
Renbe,
I think the central problem many of us “Israeli supporters” have with your type of views is you pretend to be “anti war” but you’re really anti-Western. When was the last time you condemned attacks by the anti Westerm forces – whether they be Islamic terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas or rogue regimes like Iran, Syria, and North Korea?
Sadly, I only see you defending these groups which doesn’t make you anti-war at all.
June 24, 2012 at 3:35 PM
Mark,
I have never approved of any violent actions by any Palestinian group, on the contrary. It is clear that none of their actions ever achieved anything, which proves the point I made earlier. I do not consider the Iranian Government a rogue regime. Having said this, I pity the Iranian people that their country has been taken over by religion. If anything, the Saudi government is ten times worse, but you do not mention that in your list of ‘rogue regimes’.
I do not ‘defend’ Iran, because I am all too aware of all the things that are wrong in Iran, but I vehemently oppose a preemptive strike based only on the presumption that Iran has a nuclear program that somewhere in the distant future might give them the know-how to build a nuclear weapon. Israel of all countries ought to know by now that you can not destroy knowledge.
After more than half a century of reading and thinking for myself, I firmly believe that religion should be kept far away from government, as well as from schools. I am not anti-Western, I was born and bred in North-Western Europe, and I enjoy the freedom, riches and amenities that are hard to find in other parts of the world. However, I do oppose the West’s, and especially the US’ believe that they are master of the world, and all countries have to fall in line to the benefit of the US. Decades of US wars and interventions have not made the world a better nor a safer place, in fact, from what I see, things all over the place are going from bad to worse.
June 23, 2012 at 3:46 PM
Renbe forgot to mention the Israelis boarded the ships with paint ball guns and it was only after the “peace activists” injured many of them with knives, lead pipes, and hand guns that the Israelis pulled out their real weapons.
What the Israelis should’ve done is just sunk the ship outright. I assume that’s what they’ll do next time.
June 23, 2012 at 3:53 PM
By the way I’ve seen the video of what happened and the Israeli soldiers were being attacked as they were being lowered even before their feet landed on the deck. Makes you wonder who the hell thought up such a stupid plan in the first place.
June 23, 2012 at 5:41 PM
This is the official Israeli story. The passengers of the Mavi Marmarma, several of them Jews themselves, tell a completely different story. Then there is the huge question why all the video and photo material made by passengers during the raid was confiscated and never released. One would expect 100% openness if Israel’s story is true. The “paintball gun” only scenario seems extremely unlikely to me, especially because there had been warnings that some passengers might resort to violence to defend their ships. In any case it would be extremely naive and utterly silly for hardened soldiers to carry paintball guns during any action in the middle of the sea against many hundreds of pro-Palestinian peace activists. My guess is that the soldiers used normal guns with plastic bullets, as this is confirmed by several of the eyewitnesses. I could not find any evidence of any passenger being shot with a paintball gun, even though this would of course leave paint on their clothes.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10206802
June 23, 2012 at 8:58 PM
” The fact that no weapons were found only added to Israel’s humiliation and loss of face. ”, quoting Renbe.
No weapons were founded? Are you expecting anyone here to believe that you are so misinformed? Because, if this is not wrong information, than you know what it is.
June 24, 2012 at 2:10 PM
With weapons I mean guns, firearms and bullets, not broomsticks, iron bars and kitchen knives.
June 24, 2012 at 5:34 PM
Go and check the notion ” White arms ”. Good luck.