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‘Incursion’: Baghdad demands Turkey withdraw ‘training’ troops from northern Iraq

December 5, 2015

Incursion’: Baghdad demands Turkey withdraw ‘training’ troops from northern Iraq

Published time: 4 Dec, 2015 20:12 Edited time: 5 Dec, 2015 02:34

Source: ‘Incursion’: Baghdad demands Turkey withdraw ‘training’ troops from northern Iraq — RT News

Turkish soldiers © Sertac Kayar
Turkish soldiers © Sertac Kayar / Reuters
The Iraqi government has demanded that Ankara withdraw the more than 100 Turkish forces that entered Iraq with tanks and artillery for alleged “training” of troops near Islamic State-occupied Mosul. Baghdad stressed the unsanctioned move was a breach of its sovereignty.

READ MORE: Kurds & US Special Forces should be used to seal Turkish-Syrian border – Russian FM

The Iraqi foreign ministry said in a statement early on Saturday that the Turkish troops were acting in violation of the country’s sovereignty and demanded the forces withdraw immediately. “Around one regiment armoured with tanks and artillery” has entered the northern Nineveh area, according to the statement from the Iraqi Prime Minister’s media office.

The Iraqi authorities call on Turkey to respect good neighbourly relations and to withdraw immediately from the Iraqi territory,” the statement said, stressing that the Turkish troops entered “without the request or authorization from the Iraqi federal authorities,” which is a “serious breach of Iraqi sovereignty.”

The foreign ministry called Turkey’s move “an incursion,” Reuters reported.

READ MORE: ‘Everyone knows what’s going on’: Istanbul residents on Turkey-ISIS oil trade

According to the agency’s source, the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition was aware of the Turkey’s move.

“Turkish soldiers have reached the Mosul Bashiqa region. They are there as part of routine training exercises. One battalion has crossed into the region,” the source told Reuters without revealing the exact number of troops.

He added that the Turkish forces are “training Iraqi troops.”

However, according to two US defense officials quoted by Reuters, Turkey’s deployment is not part of the efforts of the US-led coalition battling Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

On Friday, 130 Turkish soldiers equipped with heavy weapons were deployed at a military base on the outskirts of the city of Mosul, which is currently held by IS, according to the Daily Sabah newspaper.

READ MORE: Turkey skeptical about US proposal to close border ‘under ISIS control’

According to Cumhuriyet newspaper, the number of the deployed Turkish troops amounts to at least 150.

The town of Bashiqa is located about 10 kilometers northeast of Mosul.

© Google Maps
Mosul, Iraq’s second biggest city, was seized by Islamic State in June 2014 and has been fully governed by militants ever since. Moreover, the extremist group captured large stockpiles of weapons and ammunition that were stored in the city.

“In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in an interview with Iraqiya state TV in June. “We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone,” he added.

READ MORE: Mosul blame game: Iraqi ex-PM Maliki accused in fall of key city to ISIS

The Turkish intrusion into Iraq comes shortly after Ankara’s motives in the war on Islamic State have been questioned by Moscow, Tehran, as well as by Baghdad.

The Russian government has been particularly vocal in pointing the finger at the illegal oil trade between IS terrorists and the Turks. Moscow-Ankara relations deteriorated after a Turkish F-16 jet downed a Russian Su-24 bomber on the Syrian-Turkish border for an alleged airspace violation on November 24, while the Russian jet was returning from an anti-terrorist mission. In the days after, the Russian Defense Ministry presented detailed photo and video evidence showing three huge “live pipelines” made of oil trucks effortlessly crossing the Syrian border into Turkey in militant-controlled areas.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described Turkey’s move as “a stab in the back by accomplices of the terrorists,” while the Defense Ministry directly tied the illegal Syrian and Iraqi oil trade – a chief lifeline for IS terrorists – to the family of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

READ MORE: Russia says Turkey’s Erdogan & family involved in illegal ISIS oil trade

Erdogan has dismissed the accusations as “slander” and continued to defiantly present the downing of a non-hostile jet as a rightful move aimed at defending the Turkish border. The surviving Russian pilot has insisted the crew was in full control of the course of the flight and had never entered Turkey, while adding they had never received any visual or radio warning from the F-16. One Russian pilot, the commander of the jet, was killed by Turkmen rebel fire while parachuting from the plane, and one Russian Marine was killed during the search and recovery operation.

Meanwhile, as the US has stepped in for Turkey, supporting its refutation of Russia’s IS oil claims, other powers have come forward to back Moscow’s charges concerning Ankara’s trade with the terrorists. On Friday, Tehran said that it has collected photo and video evidence of IS oil entering Turkey by truck.

READ MORE: ‘Great partners’: Pentagon rejects Russian evidence of Turkey aiding ISIS

“If the government of Turkey is not informed of Daesh [derogatory term for IS] oil trade in the country, we are ready to put the information at its disposal,” Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Expediency Council Secretary, Mohsen Rezaie, as saying. The official added that they are also ready to present the proof to the public.

While officially Baghdad is now considering whether there is enough evidence of Turkey’s involvement in oil trade with IS to file a formal protest at the UN Security Council, an Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, Naseer Nuri, told Sputnik on Wednesday that “general information about the smuggling of Iraqi oil by trucks to certain countries, including Turkey” is already available to them, and “this oil is used to fund Daesh.”

Other Iraqi officials have openly accused Turkey of knowingly trading with the terrorists.

There is “no shadow of a doubt” that Ankara knows about the oil smuggling operations, Iraqi MP and former national security adviser Mowaffak al Rubaie told RT.

“The merchants, the businessmen [are buying oil] in the black market in Turkey under the noses – under the auspices if you like – of the Turkish intelligence agency and the Turkish security apparatus… There are security officers who are sympathizing with ISIS in Turkey. They are allowing them to go from Istanbul to the borders and infiltrate … Syria and Iraq,” he said.

“Money and dollars generated by selling Iraqi and Syrian oil on the Turkish black market is like the oxygen supply to ISIS and it’s operation,” Rubaie added. “Once you cut the oxygen then ISIS will suffocate.”

READ MORE: ‘Oxygen for jihadists’: ISIS-smuggled oil flows through Turkey to intl markets – Iraqi MP

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General Wesley Clark: ISIS Serves Interests Of US Allies Turkey And Saudi Arabia

December 4, 2015

General Wesley Clark: ISIS Serves Interests Of US Allies Turkey And Saudi Arabia Tyler Durden’s picture Submitted

by Tyler Durden on 12/03/2015 23:15 -0500

Source: General Wesley Clark: ISIS Serves Interests Of US Allies Turkey And Saudi Arabia | Zero Hedge

Submitted by Claire Bernish via TheAntiMedia.org,

“Let’s be very clear: ISIS is not just a terrorist organization; it is a Sunni terrorist organization. That means it blocks and targets Shi’a. And that means it’s serving the interests of Turkey and Saudi Arabia – even as it poses a threat to them.” – Retired Gen. Wesley Clark

Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General and retired U.S. General Wesley Clark revealed in an interview with CNN that the Islamic State (Daesh, ISIS) remains geostrategically imperative to Sunni nations, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, as they clamor for strategic power over Shi’a nations, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. He explained that “neither Turkey nor Saudi Arabia want an Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon ‘bridge’ that isolates Turkey, and cuts Saudi Arabia off.”

When asked by the CNN host if Russian President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that Turkey was “aiding ISIS” had any validity, he responded:

 “All along there’s always been the idea that Turkey was supporting ISIS in some way. We know they’ve funneled people going through Turkey to ISIS. Someone’s buying that oil that ISIS is selling; it’s going through somewhere – it looks to me like it’s probably going through Turkey – but the Turks haven’t acknowledged that.”

After explaining this virtual gateway for the Islamic State’s oil, Clark was quick to emphasize that Putin’s allegations about Turkey’s support for terrorist organization, ISIS, aren’t without their own hypocrisy. Russia, of course, has been upholding President Bashar al-Assad’s administration in Syria against rebel groups backed by the U.S. — despite continuing denials by U.S. officials that that particular theater is its primary interest in the region.

He said, “Putin would like to dirty Turkey by saying it’s supporting terrorists, but the truth is that he’s supporting terrorists. I mean, the tactics used by the Assad regime have been terror tactics. They’re dropping barrel bombs on innocent civilians.”

Clark concludes the interview with a statement that encapsulates growing sentiment of many Westerners who’ve grown war-weary with such geopolitical wrangling overseas:

 “There’s no good guy in this – this is a power struggle for the future of the Middle East.”

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Kurds & US Special Forces should be used to seal Turkish-Syrian border

December 3, 2015

Kurds & US Special Forces should be used to seal Turkish-Syrian border -Russian FM

Published time: 3 Dec, 2015 01:36

Source: Kurds & US Special Forces should be used to seal Turkish-Syrian border – Russian FM — RT News

This is a master set on the chess board .

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov © Sergei Karpukhin
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov © Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
With Kurdish militia and US Special Forces on the ground, there is a realistic way to shut off the illegal flow of oil from Syria into Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at talks with his Serbian counterpart, Ivica Dacic.
Trends Islamic State, Su-24 downing, Syria-Turkey

Sealing the border between Turkey and Syria is more important at the moment than finding out who is buying the oil produced by Islamic State (IS, ISIS/ISIL), Lavrov said while speaking with Dacic in Belgrade on Wednesday. The talks come on the eve of a two-day conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), currently chaired by Serbia.

“Rather than launching a lengthy procedure of investigation, one must take an absolutely obvious step, i.e. close the Turkish-Syrian border,” Lavrov said, stressing that “Turkey’s efforts will not be enough and it will need help,” RIA Novosti reports.

“As for specific ways of sealing the border between Turkey and Syria, as well as between Turkey and Iraq, one must proceed from the real situation on the ground. Kurdish militia forces, which are allies of the US-led coalition, could be used both on the Syrian and Iraqi side of the border,” he added, as quoted by TASS.

Lavrov did not rule out involvement of US Special Forces stationed in Iraq in the border closure process either, but stressed that the process must be coordinated with Damascus. “Washington claims they could be also used in Syria. I am convinced that it could be done only with consent of the Syrian government,” Lavrov stressed.

At the same time, the minister announced that the facts concerning Turkey’s oil trade with Islamic State would be officially presented at the UN to all parties concerned.

“We have repeatedly publicly stated that oil from the IS-controlled territories is transported abroad, particularly to Turkey. The facts that substantiate these claims will be formally presented in the UN in particular, and to all parties concerned,” he said.

Referring to the November 24 downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber by a Turkish jet over Syria, Lavrov refuted Turkey’s claim that Russia had earlier refused to create “a hot line” between the militaries of the two countries, saying that such a line had been established, but that Ankara had never used it.

“Turkey’s media claim that he [Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu] proposed creating a “hot line” between the Defense ministries, but we [Russia] refused. This is a lie, as such a line was established at the earliest stage of the Russian Air Space Forces operation [in Syria] at Russia’s initiative,” he said.

“Turkey has never used it. It did not use it even in the incident on November 24,” Lavrov added, referring to the downing of Russia’s bomber.

The Russian foreign minister also stressed that, if by shooting down the Russian warplane Turkey had been trying to hinder talks on Syria in Vienna, or thwart Russia’s operation in Syria, it had failed.

“If Turkey’s downing of Russia’s plane on November 24 was aimed at sabotaging the political process within the Vienna group, then I can assure you that Turkey will not succeed in this matter,” Lavrov said after the talks with Dacic, who is also the current OSCE Chair.

However, Lavrov also said during the negotiations that he was ready to meet with his Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of the OSCE conference in order to try to lower recent tensions between the two countries.

“As far as the meeting with Turkish Minister [Mevlut] Cavusoglu goes, we are ready to make such a meeting on the sidelines [of the OSCE conference],” Lavrov told reporters as he arrived in Belgrade on Wednesday.

At the same time Lavrov warned that “it will be sad if we hear nothing new.”

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‘Allah took their sanity’: Putin accuses Turkish leadership of ‘aiding terror’

December 3, 2015

‘Allah took their sanity’: Putin accuses Turkish leadership of ‘aiding terror’

Published time: 3 Dec, 2015 09:16 Edited time: 3 Dec, 2015 15:14

Source: ‘Allah took their sanity’: Putin accuses Turkish leadership of ‘aiding terror’ — RT News

December 3, 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly at the Kremlin's St. George Hall. © Ramil Sitdikov
December 3, 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly at the Kremlin’s St. George Hall. © Ramil Sitdikov / Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at “part of the leadership in Turkey” during his annual address to the parliament, accusing Ankara of having trade ties with terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq. He also promised more sanctions for Turkey over downing of the Russian jet.

Follow LIVE UPDATES on Putin addressing Russian legislators

Putin said Russia still cannot comprehend why the downing of the plane happened.

“We were prepared to cooperate with Turkey on most sensitive issues and go further than their allies. Allah knows why they did it. Apparently Allah decided to punish the ruling clique in Turkey by taking their sanity,” Putin said.

Putin stressed that Moscow’s anger over the incident is directed at particular individuals and not at the Turkish people.

“We have many friends in Turkey,” he said. “They should know that we do not equate them and part of the current Turkish leadership, which holds a direct responsibility for the deaths of our troops in Syria,” he said.

He added that the killing of Russian officers would have long-term consequences for those responsible.

“We will not forget this aid to terrorists. We have always considered betrayal the worst and most shameful act. Let those in Turkey know it who shot our pilots in the back, who hypocritically tries to justify themselves and their actions and cover up the crimes of terrorists,” he said.

The routes of alleged oil smuggling from Syria and Iraq to Turkey © syria.mil.ru

Map, images from Russian military show main routes of ISIS oil smuggling to Turkey

Putin said Russia would not resort to saber-rattling to respond to the Turkish actions, but neither would it limit itself to the economic sanctions it imposed since the incident.

The incident with the Russian Su-24 bomber shot down by Turkish warplanes near the Turkish-Syrian border has greatly deteriorated relations between the two countries. Turkey insists it acted in response to a brief violation of its airspace and was justified in using lethal force. Russia insists no violation took place and has accused Turkey of supporting terrorists in Syria.

The downing of the bomber resulted in the deaths of two Russian troops, who were the first combat losses during the two month-long Syrian campaign. The pilot of the downed plane was killed by a pro-Turkish militant group as he was parachuting to the ground. A marine was killed by militants when a helicopter dispatched to rescue the bomber crew came under fire from the ground.

Putin’s address started with a minute’s silence to commemorate the two troops. The widows of the dead Russians were present at the event.

Putin stressed that the Russian operation in Syria is aimed first and foremost at preventing fighters who went to the Middle East from Russia and its neighboring countries from returning home and bringing the threat of terrorist attacks to Russian soil.

“They are getting money, weapons, gathering strength. If they get stronger, winning there, they will inevitably come here to sow fear and hatred, blast, kill and torture people,” Putin said.

Putin called on all nations that have pledged to fight terrorism to join forces and abandon the notion that terrorist groups can be used for country’s own goals. He stressed that the rise of terrorism in the Middle East over the last few years was caused to a large degree by foreign meddling.

“Some countries in the Middle East and North Africa, which used to be stable and relatively prosperous – Iraq, Libya, Syria – have turned into zones of chaos and anarchy that pose a threat to entire world,” Putin said.

Read more

© syria.mil.ru

Russia presents proof of Turkey’s role in ISIS oil trade

“We know why it happened. We know who wanted to oust unwanted regimes, and rudely impose their own rules. They triggered hostilities, destroyed statehoods, set people against each other and simply washed their hands [of the situation] – giving way to radicals, extremists and terrorists.”

Russia’s lost thousands of lives over two decades of terrorist attacks and is still not safe from terrorist attacks, as evidenced by the bombings in Volgograd in 2014 and the bombing of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt in October, Putin reminded.

“Breaking the bandits’ back took us almost 10 years,” he said. “We practically pushed the terrorists out of Russia, but we are still engaged in a fierce fight against the remainder of the gangs. This evil still comes back occasionally.”

Putin said the rise of jihadists in the Middle East in our time is not unlike the rise of Nazism in the mid-20th century, and that the world should learn from the mistakes of the past, when a failure to act in time resulted in the loss of millions of lives.

“We are facing a destructive barbaric ideology again and we have no right to allow those new obscurants to achieve their goals. We have to abandon all differences, create a single fist, a single anti-terrorist front, which would act in accordance with the international law and under the aegis of the United Nations,” he said.

Putin was speaking on Thursday before the Federal Assembly, a joint session of the two chambers of the Russian parliament, plus regional governors and the cabinet. The annual address is a traditional key policy report of the executive, which focuses on domestic politics rather than international relations.

‘Business as usual’ with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now over, Sergey Ivanov, the head of Putin’s office, confirmed to RT after the Russian president’s address:

“Yes, it is definitely over. But fighting terrorism is ‘business as usual’, as the Russian president said,” Ivanov said.

The Turkish leadership “must acknowledge that a tragic mistake was committed and to beg for [forgiveness], or this leadership will not play any significant role in bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey. We will not be able to have any ties with Turkey under this leadership if it doesn’t change its attitude,” Konstantin Kosachev, the chair of the State Duma Committee for Foreign Relations, told RT.

 

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Russia ready to coordinate steps to block Turkish-Syrian border

November 30, 2015

Russia ready to coordinate steps to block Turkish-Syrian border

FM Russian Politics & Diplomacy November 27, 17:55

Source: TASS: Russian Politics & Diplomacy – Russia ready to coordinate steps to block Turkish-Syrian border — FM

Lavrov recalled that French President Francois Hollande earlier voiced the proposal to adopt specific measures to block the Turkish-Syrian border

Turkish side of the border with Syria
Turkish side of the border with Syria

© AP Photo/Emrah Gurel

MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. Russia is ready to coordinate practical steps to block the Turkish-Syrian border in cooperation with Damascus, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday after talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

Lavrov recalled that French President Francois Hollande earlier voiced the proposal to adopt specific measures to block the Turkish-Syrian border.

“We actively support that. We are open for coordination of practical steps, certainly, in interaction with the Syrian government,” he said. “We are convinced that by blocking the border we will in many respects solve the tasks to eradicate terrorism on Syrian soil.”

“We hope that initiative by President Hollande will be implemented within the framework of our joint work, including in the Group of Support for Syria,” the minister said.

Russia has questions about Ankara’s commitment to anti-terror efforts

Lavrov pointed out that Russia has question about Ankara’s real plans, including those on counter-terrorist efforts.

“The hotbed of terrorist treat is concentrated in vast territories of Syria and Iraq,” he said. “It is the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and we have a common opinion that it can be exterminated only without any double standards. Special responsibility in terms of denouncing such double standards and acting in a united front against terrorism rests on Syria’s neighbor countries.”

“We think it highly cynical when some of the countries speak about their commitment to the corresponding United Nations Security Council resolutions and declare themselves members of anti-terrorist coalitions but in reality are playing a game where terrorists are allocated the role of secret allies,” Lavrov stressed. “We have more and more questions about Ankara’s real plans and the degree of its readiness to exterminate terrorism, in particular in Syria, and its commitment to the normalization of the situation in Syria.”

The Russian top diplomat drew attention to the statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stressed that terrorist threat could be countered through the efforts of the entire world community, with due respect to the norms of international law and the United Nations Security Council’s central role.

“We are ready to take due account of these or those concerns and interests of the countries committed to anti-terrorist efforts and are ready for such formats of coalition, cooperation and coordination that would cause no discomfort to anyone,” he said. “Now it is up to our partners, including those who are members of the coalition formed last year by the United States, which has yielded no visible results as of yet.”

Added by JK

IS’ supply channels through Turkey

http://www.dw.com/en/is-supply-channels-through-turkey/av-18091048

Russia to Launch ‘Total Destruction’ Operations against ISIL in Syria

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940907000699

 

 

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NATO supports Turkey in downed Russian jet incident, Turkish PM says no apology

November 30, 2015

NATO supports Turkey in downed Russian jet incident, Turkish PM says no apology BRUSSELS

Monday,November 30 2015

Source: NATO supports Turkey in downed Russian jet incident, Turkish PM says no apology – DIPLOMACY

We will see what happens if a NATO jet or Turkish jet fly over Syrian soil without permission of Syria .

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (L) held a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Nov. 30, 2015. AA Photo

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (L) held a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Nov. 30, 2015. AA Photo

NATO has pledged support to Turkey over the downing of the Russian fighter jet which violated Turkish airspace on Nov. 24, while Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said there will be no apology for the incident.

Speaking before members of the press after a meeting in Brussels on Nov. 30, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the North Atlantic Alliance was pledging support to Turkey in its efforts to defend its borders. 
“Turkey has the right to defend itself and [its] airspace,” said Stoltenberg. 

Meanwhile, Davutoğlu said Turkey would not offer any apology to Russia as it was a national issue for the country, contrary to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand.

“No country can ask us to apologize [for the incident] because [we were] doing our job,” said Davutoğlu. “Our action was a defensive action.”

“This is more of an issue of dignity for us,” added Davutoğlu.

“Our army did their job in protecting our border,” he said, stressing it was the border between Turkey and Syria.

Davutoğlu said Turkey’s rules of engagement were made clear to Russia three times, in Ankara, Antalya and Moscow, before the downing of the jet.

“It was a defensive action. If there was no violation [of Turkish airspace] there would not be such a crisis,” he said, adding that Turkey had no intention of escalating the tension and was open to talks at every level and sharing information about the incident to make Turkey’s position clear.

Stoltenberg said what was important at the moment was easing relations and that they supported all talks between Turkey and Russia to de-escalate the tensions.

He said the NATO Ministerial Meeting on Dec. 1 would discuss how NATO could produce mechanisms to de-escalate tensions and also avoid a similar incident in the future.

Commenting of the economic sanctions imposed by Russia on Turkey after the downing of the Russian jet, Davutoğlu said it contradicted Russia’s position when the country had sanctions imposed on it after the crisis with Ukraine over Crimea.

Davutoğlu said Russia had reacted to the sanctions in that incident and Turkey had also stood against any sanctions on Russia, but what they were doing currently towards Turkey was contradictory to their previous position.

“We will not escalate tension,” repeated Davutoğlu.

He added Russians were a friendly people to Turkish people and “for many [Russians], Antalya is a second home.”

“We hope Russia will reconsider these measures, which will be against our common interests,” Davutoğlu said.

November/30/2015

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The Accomplices Have Their Backs Against the Wall

November 29, 2015

The Accomplices Have Their Backs Against the Wall NATO knows its Turkish member’s ties to ISIS will be revealed if Russia succeeds in Syria

German Economic News

Source: The Accomplices Have Their Backs Against the Wall

Originally Appeared at German Economic News; Translated by Susan Neumann

NATO is extremely nervous, because it knows that the truth about the relationship of NATO-member Turkey to the Islamist terror group (IS) will come to light if there is a Russian victory in Syria. If the refugees are able to return, Erdogan won’t have them as a pawn to extort money [from the EU]. It’s clear who’s interested in an escalation of the conflict.

The reaction of the Western alliance on the shooting down of a Russian bomber show that NATO is very nervous. It’s on the verge of losing control of Russia in Syria. The great Turkish ride out, which was most likely planned by the secret services, looks more like a desperate symbolic act than a carefully considered commando operation. The Russian Ambassador to NATO, Alexander Grushko, called it shadow theatre.

The reason why NATO is looking for shady place to hide is the fact that Putin named those who shot down the Russian aircraft accomplices of the terrorists. Turkey is a NATO country. The alliance is confronted with the official accusation of terrorism for the first time. Until now, NATO has been the only one to slap others with the terrorist label. The real reason for their nervousness is tangibly rooted in the military.

The hopes of NATO and their secret services are being dashed on the rocks. US President Barack Obama has been running a different political course than that which NATO and their secret services would want. Obama wants to get out of the Syria war. He’s admitted that the mission has failed — and the idea of “regime change” has taken a heavy beating, to say the least. Obama has arranged it with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Russians take over the IS-project. This has been devastatingly humiliating for the neocons, NATO, and the secret services.

After that, Russia began fighting terrorists who were allies of the US military. From the very beginning, Putin has stood in the way of the western military’s desire to cover up their manipulations Syria. The Islamic State and the military advisers of both Turkey and the Pentagon are now facing defeat in Syria.

US President Obama knows this as well. His message to Putin is therefore remarkably diplomatic. After a meeting at the White House with French President Francois Hollande, President Barack Obama said that if Moscow had a “change of strategy,” there would be “great potential” for cooperation. “Russia is welcome to be a part of our broad coalition.” It’s Obama’s half-hearted attempt to make it appear to NATO that they can bring Russia under control.

Why indeed, should Russia change its strategy, above all now? The Russians have kept repeating that the reason they’ve involved themselves militarily in Syria is because NATO has failed. One can believe that, because the Russians know that a fight to uncover terrorist cells is anything but easy. In order not to end up like the Americans in no man’s land, the Russians have made skillful alliances with Iran, Iraq, and China; and have even allowed Israel to have access to their information.

The military successes of the past few weeks have put the Western mercenary troops in dire straits. Obama’s added invitation for the Russians to join in is the real reason why NATO is so nervous. Obama says Moscow should work in close military cooperation and target their air strikes on the IS rather than the moderate rebels. They should also support political change in Damascus.

Russia has supported the change in Damascus for weeks. Moscow has repeatedly said that it doesn’t insist on Assad being president in the long run. The Russians do say, however, that it must be the decision of the Syrian people. This position is also shared by Iran. Russia has also submitted a transition plan of Syria, post-war. Within 18 months a new constitution could be drafted and new elections could be held. If anybody needed to make a strategic change, it would be the Western alliance. They have presented no political concept other than the battle cry, “Assad must go!”

The main worry of NATO, and Turkey in particular, lies in the risk that a Russian victory could uncover all the goings-on, of how the West and especially the Turkish government cooperated with the terrorists in the region. [If the Russians are victorious,] it will show the refugee debate in a completely different light, and it will become clear how the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cynically abused the refugees as bartering chips for his ambitions. It will also show that Erdogan’s war against the PKK is a completely disproportionate war, one in which the Kurdish civilian population was brutally attacked. One will also recognize that the West only has the Turkish government and Saudi Arabia as its allies, in a region with two Islamist governments.

Erdogan can still blackmail the totally incompetent EU and the German chancellor, who is totally over her head — by demanding billions of euros in protection money for the refugees. If the Russians truly succeed, however, in bringing peace to Syria — and in such a way that a majority of the refugees can return to their homeland — then Erdogan suddenly has a bad poker hand. Turkey is of course totally unsuitable to be included in the EU under Erdogan. Everybody in Brussels knows it. The visa-free travel is also a grotesque idea. Every day there are new incidents of how business can be conducted with fake Turkish passports — especially in Turkey. Then there’s the three billion euros that Erdogan demands from European taxpayers for the refugees. What’s going to happen with the money? Integration of refugees in Turkey? Better accommodation in the camps? No corruption, complete transparency?

This whole outlook makes Erdogan’s government and its intelligence agencies feel justified in shooting down a Russian fighter jet. They need an escalation of the situation, because they have their backs to the wall. That also makes Erdogan unpredictable in this conflict. He has a lot to lose.

For documentation purposes, we’ve published the report by the Germany Press Agency on NATO’s statement about the shoot-down. It proves that military units were not invented to think.

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Erdogan: Downing of Turkish jet with S-400 missile would mean aggression

November 27, 2015

Erdogan: Downing of Turkish jet with S-400 missile would mean aggression

27 November 2015 / 11:19

Source: APA – Erdogan: Downing of Turkish jet with S-400 missile would mean aggression

Baku. Malahat Najafova – APA. In case a Turkish jet gets shot down by the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system in Syrian airspace, Ankara will regard it as an aggression.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the remarks in a statement to CNN International of the possibility of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system targeting Turkish warplanes in case they enter Syrian airspace.

Erdogan did not rule out the possibility of such an incident.

“In this case Turkey will be forced to take measures that will certainly not be discussed. And of course it would be an aggression against our rights of sovereignty and it’s the natural right of the state to protect those rights. We do not want to see any escalation of the situation in the region. We do not want to become a party to that. But those who side with Syria and escalate the tension, I think, are the responsible parties to this,” the Turkish president stressed.

Asked whether he saw the moving of the Russian S-400s into western Syria as a threat to Turkey and other coalition members who may be flying sorties in this region, the Turkish president said Russia has been providing military support to Syria since long ago – since the rain of Bashar Al-Assad’s father.

“Russia has sold or given this kind of systems to Syria. It’s impossible to say that this is something new and did not take place last year,” said Erdogan.

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Erdogan’s Mistake: Russia May Now Initiate Own ‘No-Fly Zone’ Over Syria

November 27, 2015

Erdogan’s Mistake: Russia May Now Initiate Own ‘No-Fly Zone’ Over Syria

17:33 27.11.2015

Source: Erdogan’s Mistake: Russia May Now Initiate Own ‘No-Fly Zone’ Over Syria

President Erdogan’s mistake in shooting down the Russian Su-24 bomber ‘has waived the green light’ for Russia to initiate a ‘no-fly zone’ by deploying additional fighter power and air defense systems in Syria, US columnist Jim W. Dean notes.

 The US-led coalition’s recent provocation against the Russo-Syrian counter terrorism campaign has “put nothing but torpedoes into its own sinking international credibility,” according to US columnist and managing editor for Veterans Today Jim W. Dean.

Dean stresses that the destruction of the ISIL oil tanker fleet, which NATO had been “somehow” unable to detect for over a year, has predictably prompted outrage from those who have long been benefitting from the illicit oil trade.

We suspected the tanker-crushing move would make the people who had been marketing ISIL’s oil, the Kurds and Turkey, unhappy enough to be provoked into a blunder themselves. We did not have to wait long, with the militarily-senseless shooting down of the Russian SU-24 bomber by the Turkish F-16s,” Dean narrates in his recent article for New Eastern Outlook.

Turkish Air Force F-16
© Flickr/ UK Ministry of Defence
Make No Mistake: Su-24 Downing by Turkey a ‘Clear Act of War’ – US Author

The US columnist emphasizes that it is obvious that Turkey would never dare to carry out such a provocation “without clearing it with the US and NATO, as they would be dragged into anyway.”

Turkish reports that they knew nothing about the origin of the Su-24 bomber jet sound completely unconvincing.

“Did they expect us to believe that their radar was not working, nor the US-coalition drones or spy satellites that monitor the Syria-Iraqi battlefield 24/7?” Dean asks with a trace of irony.

However, NATO with Secretary General Stoltenberg has supported Turkey. Still, there were a number of NATO envoys who expressed their concerns regarding the matter. They pointed to the fact that Turkey did not make attempts to escort the Russian bomber out of its airspace.

Jobar, a Damascus district controlled by terrorists
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresenskiy
Syria: Stalingrad of Western ‘Regime Changers’ – British Author

The Turkish claim that the Russian plane had entered the country’s airspace has fallen apart at the seams since Russia presented the recording of their air combat radar plotting maps.

“They showed the Russian planes flying near the border, and the Turkish planes making their attack runs south, which actually took the Turks into Syria,” Dean underscores.

The whole incident looks very fishy: the Turkish provocation has triggered justified suspicions among  European lawmakers. Some of them have gone even so far as to blame Ankara for collaboration with ISIL, the US columnist notes.

Still, Turkey’s provocation has not worked: the Kremlin immediately disavowed any hints of a military response, Dean emphasizes.

Instead, Russia has deployed its advanced S-400 Triumf air defense system with the capability of hitting targets at ranges of up to 400 kilometers to Hmeymim air base in Syria. Furthermore, Russia’s Moskva 11,500-ton warship has reached the shores of Syria in order to ensure the security of Russian aircraft in the region.

Interestingly enough, the Turkish Hurriyet media outlet reported Friday that “the Turkish army has suspended flights over Syria as part of an ongoing joint military campaign with the United States against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) after it shot down a Russian jetfighter.”

Turkey used its last ‘freebie’ by shooting the Russian plane down. There will be no Western coalition no-fly zone in northern Syria, for which some Senators and presidential candidate crazies were trying to get headlines advocating; at least not the kind they wanted,” Dean points out.

Now, Russia can create a “defensive bubble” over Syria. Moscow does not want to do this, he notes, but it has been forced to. Russia has repeatedly made attempts to form a real coalition with Western countries and their partners in order to smash ISIL, but the West turned a deaf ear to its proposal.

“Erdogan’s mistake in shooting the bomber down has waived the green flag for Putin to bring in enough fighter power for the Syrian coalition to initiate a no-fly zone on any uninvited airstrikes anywhere inside Syrian if attacks on Russian planes were continue,” the US columnist emphasizes.

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US Says Turkey Downed Russian Jet While in Syrian Airspace

November 27, 2015

US Says Turkey Downed Russian Jet While in Syrian Airspace If US officials are correct, Turkey committed a textbook war crime by shooting down a plane that was operating in Syrian airspace at the invitation of the Syrian government

Source: US Says Turkey Downed Russian Jet While in Syrian Airspace

A brief report by Reuters has completely shattered Ankara’s story of the Russian jet joyriding in its airspace:

The United States believes that the Russian jet shot down by Turkey on Tuesday was hit inside Syrian airspace after a brief incursion into Turkish airspace, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said that assessment was based on detection of the heat signature of the jet.

Even if we assume that the Russian jet briefly entered Turkish airspace, it would be a clear violation of international law for Turkish fighter jets to attack the plane inside Syria.

 What’s puzzling is that it’s highly unlikely that Turkey acted without consent from the United States. Is Washington having second thoughts about this clear provocation?

It’s interesting that Obama has expressed support for Turkey, without explicitly stating that Russia violated Turkish airspace:

[This incident] points to an ongoing problem with the Russian operations. They are operating very close to a Turkish border, and they are going after moderate opposition that are supported by not only Turkey but a wide range of countries.

The problem with the “moderate opposition” line is that Reuters reported today that al Qaeda’s Nusra Front operates in the region that was being targeted by Russia during the time of the shoot-down.

And just a reminder: NATO still “stands in solidarity” with Turkey.

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