Turkey dubs Syria 'a clear threat', vows to retaliate

Yahoo ^

[Sub-Driver]

Turkey dubs Syria 'a clear threat', vows to retaliate AFPAFP – 3 hrs ago

Turkey branded its former ally Syria "a clear and imminent threat," on Tuesday as its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vented his fury over the downing of a Turkish fighter jet.

In his most outspoken criticism of the Damascus regime, Erdogan vowed to retaliate against the "heinous act" and promised a change of military attitude to any Syrian officer approaching the common border.

"The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces have changed given this new development," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told parliament following the shooting down of F-4 Phantom jet Friday. The two pilots are still missing.

Any risk posed by Syria on the Turkish border will be "considered a threat and treated as a military target," he said in a jam-packed room of lawmakers who frequently interrupted the address with applause.

Erdogan said his government would retaliate "with determination" and take what he called the "necessary steps by determining the time, place and method by itself".

[Strategerist]

Russia doesn’t even border on Turkey anymore.

Dating myself a bit but I did a long undergrad paper on the defense of Turkey against Warsaw Pact attack; conclusion was that the Sovs even plus the Bulgarians & Romanians couldn’t possibly make any progress against the Turks without diverting forces from the Central Front in Germany, which would be obviously stupid.

Turkish military has modernized a lot since then. Russians couldn’t credibly touch the Turks militarily in any way, really, unless they wanted to nuke them.

[spokeshave]

Fundamentalist Islamist government in Turkey fighting Fascist Islamist government in Syria. Rooting from the sidelines while munching popcorn appears to be the order of the day. Nobody here we like.

Trouble is...both Turkey and Syria want to eliminate the Kurds.

[Strategerist]

Keep in mind that the Turkish government and the Turkish miltiary are two different things; the military is fanatically secular in a very deep rooted, top-to-bottom cultural way, and doesn’t instantly change just because the Turkish government has changed, or a few generals have been replaced.

[The Pack Knight]

Not through open warfare, but I can certainly see them providing some financial and other support in order to draw out any Turko-Syrian hostilities in order to make it more costly, both materially and politically, for Turkey. A weakened and less assertive Turkey is definitely in Russia’s core interests.

[MichaelCorleone]

***Erdogan said his government would retaliate “with determination” and take what he called the “necessary steps by determining the time, place and method by itself”.***

You mean they won’t wait to get UN approval or worry about world opinion?

[green iguana]

“...which side are we rooting for here?”

Both and neither.

Depth and length would be nice tho’.

[COBOL2Java]

Time to hit the links!

[green iguana]

Who’s that white boy? He doesn’t even have much of a tan.

[iopscusa]

A Syrian vs Turkey war could be the catalyst for a reuniting of the Kurdish Nation. This could be a good result but I doubt the Turks will do more than speak loudly unless they get Uncle Sugar or the Brits to backstop their little Turkish azzes.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

So far Turkey is all talk

[Karliner]

This is a major international cluster****. No one wins, eveyone loses, mostly all them dhimmi Jews and Christians who have lived there for thousands of years.
Damasacus is going to be a heap of rubble very soon Isaiah 17.

[Little Ray]

I’m rooting for Turkey invading and Syria using the Iraqi WMDs that the Sov, er, Russians smuggled into Syria on them. Much munching of popcorn on that one.

[GonzoGOP]

Keep in mind that the Turkish government and the Turkish military are two different things;

Well aware of it, hence the use of the word "government" in my original post. Unfortunately it is governments who send the military to war. Perhaps if the Turkish military sees the results of blindly following the Islamist civilian leadership they may do something about it.

In any case they will bloody the Iranians and their proxies in Lebanon and Syria. Bad things happening to Iran is always a good thing for us. When the Turks get angry they have a long and well documented tradition of being bad things personified. Only the Russians have traditionally had good luck against them. Everyone else, from the Crusaders in the holy land, to the Brits at Galipoli, and the Chinese at Kumyangjang-Ni have found them tough customers.

[Morgana]

“...which side are we rooting for here?”

Not sure. Just sit back, watch the movie and eat some popcorn.

[wtc911]

...which side are we rooting for here?

___________________________________

It's a triangle. We are rooting for the third side....Israel.

[GonzoGOP]

Trouble is...both Turkey and Syria want to eliminate the Kurds.

Eliminating the Kurds would be like eliminating the Jews in Israel. A heck of a lot easier said than done. Everyone over there has tried it at least once, and nobody has ever managed to dig the Kurds out of their mountains.

[gandalftb]

After action report:

June 22, 1140 hours, Syrian coastal radar detected two unidentified aircraft 6 km. west of the coast, inbound due east towards the coastal village of Ra’es al-Baseet. Aircraft speed was about 800 kmh, altitude was about 100 meters.

The aircraft were automatically radar locked on by a ZSU-23-4 Shilka, a 4 barrel, 23 mm auto-cannon, self-propelled, radar guided anti-aircraft vehicle.

At lock on, both aircraft turned northeast and descended off radar. At 2 kilometers downrange they ascended to 100 meters and were reacquired and locked on.

The ZSU-23-4 automatically engaged fire, striking one of the aircraft in the tail. The disabled aircraft then banked hard left and crashed about 6 km out, offshore the coastal city of Latakia.

At that low altitude it is unlikely that the pilots survived. Wreckage has been recovered and delivered to Turkey.

In my opinion, the mission intended to test the Syrian air defenses from the west of Syria.