
Presidents Erdogan of Turkey, Obama of U.S.
WASHINGTON – The Russians may have deliberately had their Su-24 jet fighter, dispatched on bombing runs to Syria, fly over Turkey to prompt a confrontation over Ankara's continuing support for the Islamic State, according to a Defense Department official who spoke to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The official, who asked for anonymity because he wasn't authorized to comment, told G2Bulletin there has been continuing friction between Moscow and Ankara, and he cited the speed at which the Russians presented documentation to the United Nations on Turkey's role in funneling so-called trucked oil trains into Turkey and the role of certain family members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in this effort.
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In addition, he said Moscow also was swift to launch economic sanctions against Ankara affecting Turkey's dependence on oil and natural gas imports from Russia.
On Nov. 24, the Su-24 flew over a portion of southern Turkey for a total of 17 seconds before it was shot down by two Turkish F-16 interceptors with an air-to-air missile, according to radar tracking released by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, of which Turkey is a member. The aircraft subsequently crashed inside Syria.
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Prior to the shootdown, Turkey had warned Russia about such incursions, which in the past had prompted an apology from the Kremlin. There had been other occasions of Russian aircraft flying over Turkey which resulted only in verbal complaints.
But this time was different, raising the possibility that just like Russia, Turkey had its own agenda in shooting down the aircraft, unlike previous occasions, in spite of the two countries' close economic ties.
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Turkey was caught off-guard when Moscow began to launch airstrikes inside Syria on Sep. 30, ostensibly to fight ISIS. On the day it was shot down, however, the Su-24 was bombing Turkmen fighters who oppose the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and also have ties to the Syrian al-Qaida branch, Jabhat al-Nusra.
The Turkmen fighters are related to the Turks and years earlier had settled in the northeastern part of present-day Syria when the land was still part of the Ottoman Empire which vanished following World War I.
For the rest of this report, and others, please go to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The defense official told G2Bulletin that Moscow's confrontation with Turkey has broader geostrategic implications.
He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has pushed to keep Assad in power while Erdogan has allowed Sunni Turkey to be a conduit for foreign fighters and well as money to Syrian opposition forces and Islamic jihadists in an effort to topple the Syrian president, a Shia-Alawite, who is allied with Shiite Iran.
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Russia's interest is to reestablish itself in the Middle East after 20 years of being virtually absent, while the United States has sought to extend its own influence which today is virtually gone from the region as a result of the Arab Spring.
Ankara also has been a thorn in Moscow's side since it supports the Muslim Brotherhood and is in opposition to another ally, Egypt, Moscow is cultivating. In 2012, Egypt kicked out its Muslim-Brotherhood president, Mohamad Morsi, much to the consternation of Erdogan and U.S. President Barack Obama.
Egypt recently signed a multi-billion dollar deal to buy Russian arms, including aircraft, which also will help solidify Moscow's renewed role in the Middle East.
From a geostrategic standpoint, Russia is reestablishing itself in Syria by making a permanent naval base at Tartous and now airfields from which it can launch its jet fighters inside Syria against ISIS and other jihadi groups opposed to Assad.
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As a result, Erdogan's design to oust Assad in an effort to establish a Sunni regime there not only clashes with Putin's intentions but the Turkish president's efforts are backed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both of whom have been providing funding, fighters and arms to jihadists fighting Assad.
In turn, this has distanced Moscow from Riyadh, where relations have been prickly ever since Saudi Prince Bandar al-Saud told Putin in a secret meeting in Moscow the Saudis controlled the Sunni jihadist Chechens who were launching attacks inside Russia and now are fighting inside Syria.
For the rest of this report, and others, please go to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.