Posted on 06/26/2012 7:47:43 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
"We live in a real state of war from all angles," Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told his cabinet on Tuesday... "When we are in a war, all policies and all sides and all sectors need to be directed at winning this war." ...
"Any military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria ... will be regarded as a threat and treated as a military target," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan...
Tuesday also saw Russia enter the war of words, albeit with a call for calm and restraint. Russia's Foreign Ministry said the loss of Turkey's jet should not be seen as a "provocation" by Syria, its close ally in the region.
"It is important that what happened is not viewed as a provocation or a premeditated action," said the ministry in a statement, according to Reuters...
Russia also reportedly warned world leaders against using the incident to push for stronger action against Syria.
The head of the NATO military alliance called the downing of the jet unacceptable on Tuesday, shortly after Turkey briefed NATO's North Atlantic Council in discussions held under Article 4 of NATO's founding treaty, which allows a NATO member to request consultations if its security has been threatened.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen... expressed solidarity with Turkey, but made no mention of retaliatory action.
Erdogan said Syria shot down the unarmed plane in international airspace in a "deliberate" and "hostile" act and without warning. He said border violations in the region were not uncommon, and that Syrian helicopters had violated Turkish airspace five times recently, without Turkish response...
The public anger in Turkey is largely muted, and Huseyin Celik, a senior member of Erdogan's ruling party, said the party grassroots is against going to war.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
Right, and Iran, Israel, and Egypt will just stand by, who are you kidding...not to mention NATO (after all, they are obligated to be involved).
I know. It seemed like such a good idea to let Turkey into NATO at the time. If you make a deal with Muslims eventually you will regret it.
It’s called an agreement against aggression. You can argue with the terms, but we have agreed to help them in crisis. What do you want to do?
Try to make a deal with a Muslim they will slip a knife into your back as soon as you turn it.
You mean like Turkey helped us against Iraq?
With that, I don’t disagree! We may have made a pact with the devil here. It is in force though and if we do not disavow it, we are required to help.
Not sure which way I would vote here though. It seems that Turkey has long become a part of the Islamist creed. They have stopped out conveys, argued with us about drones, etc.
Maybe this is the time to kick them out of NATO and disregard any previous relationships.
Turks know about how honest Arabs are—They would mince no words on these fellows—This could spin out of control really fast. A border skirmish turns into a battle, Turkey attack a Syrian City, Syria hits Ankara with poison gas or germs. Turks go crazy swarm across the border killing all in their way. Iran gets involved, hits Turkey, battle at sea Syria-Russia vs. Turkish navy. Israel joins the Turks in battle. Just one set of things that could happen.
You slept thru WWIII? We lost almost 100,000 KIA in that one.
Maybe you should look at current NATO agreements instead of looking at the past.
Talking in the name of Balkan countries (Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece) we would go against Turkey in no time. We just need a reason to get them once and for all.
And as far as I see, Israelis would too.
Most of the operations would be conducted by the Turkish 2nd Army. VI Corps (Adana district) is along the border with VII and VIII in support to the northeast.
VI Corps consists of a single mech brigade along with an armored brigade and an artillery regiment. That corps won’t get far without a lot of help from the other heavy corps. BTW, the “Heavy Corps” infantry brigades are all listed as “motorized”, ie. unarmored, truckborne infantry.
The best armor that the Turks have is around 400 Leopard 2A4’s. The bulk of their armored forces still use modernized M60’s with M48’s in reserve.
As we’ve seen, the Turkish Phantoms are not going to survive long in a modern SAM environment without sophisticated Wild Weasel support. I can’t say if the Turkish AF’s F-16’s train for that mission.
Basically if Turkey wanted to hit Syria with their Sunday Punch, they’d have to strip their forces along the Russian border. I don’t think that they’ll do that given the noises that Putin is making.
The Turks will do what they did in Northern Iraq. A puntative raid. They’ll go in to a depth of a few miles and sit. And that’s about all they are really capable of unless they go all in.
The closest I got was 3 days in Erzerum.
I spent a few weeks in Erzerum. Used to go to the outter detachments all the time. Sinop was fun too. < /s>
I was in country 77-78. TUSLOG Det 67. When were you there?
5.56mm
87-88 @ Cakmakli
Did the Det still have nukes in '88? If so, Pershings?
What was your MOS? It has been 20 yrs, so you can probably talk about it now.
Sorry about all the questions.
5.56mm
Wow! Between the three of us, we covered the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s!
Cakmakli was closed and turned back over to the Turks in 1990 or so. It was a nice tour, the best I had in my enlistment. I was a finance clerk, there were things that the ordnance guys wouldnt talk about.
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