Q & A
Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)
Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) – Publication date: 7 February 2016
Turkey and Russia are involved in a tit-for-tat over alleged air space violations as they both continue to immerse themselves in the war in Syria. What is going on?
Turkey, long accustomed to often hypocritical support from the West, is indeed playing with fire and appears willing to cross into territory that has been off-limits since 1945— viz. initiating an open challenge of Russia. The Syrian war offers the perfect battlefield for such dangerous Turkish antics which, so far, both NATO and Europe more than tolerate. Turkish claims of air space violations by Russian warplanes are far from convincing and Western intelligence is well aware of the facts. As one recent report, focusing on the shooting down of a Russian bomber by a Turkish fighter on November 24, 2015, explained: "Turkey claimed that it was responding to the Russian plane entering its airspace for 17 seconds, but the Turkish fighters made every effort to conceal themselves by flying at low altitude, and they appear to have been on a special mission to destroy the Russian aircraft."...Read more