Turkey threat, retaliation useless against Syria
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the countrys downed military jet had violated the Syrian airspace for a short time and "by mistake."
Syria on Friday said a Turkish fighter jet, an F-4 Phantom, was downed in Syrian territorial waters, west of the village of Om al-Tuyour in Lattakia Province, 10 kilometers from the beach.
The Syrian military stressed that it had engaged the jet in the Syrian airspace according to the laws that govern such situations.
Erdogan said that his government would retaliate against Damascus over the downing of the jet by the Syrian army, changing the rules of engagement and branding its former ally as "a clear and imminent threat."
Press TV has conducted an interview with Tahsin al-Halabi, political analyst, to further discuss the issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: First, lets discuss the issue now concerning Turkey. Theres been a shift in the Turkish Prime Ministers stance towards Syria, meaning that now it is viewing Damascus, he says, as a threat. How serious do you think this is going to get?
Al-Halabi: I think that what Erdogan declared is all that he can do along with his government against Syria because it is a baseless threat and it will be, nevertheless, not available even to be implemented against Syria because Syria would not violate any borders with Turkey and would not violate any international law with all its neighbors.
It is just a threat that would justify or would like to make a certain intention against Syria, politically, as a theoretical retaliation of what Syria did to defend its airspace and its territory against the violations of the air force of Turkey.
I think Turkey would lose a lot of factors from such a hostility against Syria because Syria, although it has only 25 million population comparing with Turkey with about 80 million, but Syria can be and continue to be stronger in defending its territories, and it will have no kind of enmity or hostility against Turkey.
Erdogan knew very well that [based on the opinion of] the Turkish people in the last poll [which] took place in Turkey a few weeks ago, most of the population of Turkey agree that the leadership of Syria and the people of Syria are a friendly people and a friendly leadership to the Turkish people; and they wouldnt accept all the policies that Erdogan is trying to conduct for the sake of the NATO and the Western interests against such an Arab neighbor to Turkey.
As you see, Turkey made a lot of violations against the Iraqi territories when it launched certain air raids against the PKK inside Iraqi territories. Nevertheless, Erdogan didnt even apologize to the Iraqi people and the Iraqi leadership for such actions against Iraq. Now, he is trying to just make manipulations.
Press TV: Right now Mr. Erdogan is saying that there is no excuse for Syria to shoot down the warplane, and its seeing this as a hostile act from Syria. Its asking NATO for support and NATO has said it is going to support Ankara in this case.
Do you think that this is going to lead to an escalation? Are we going to see an escalation or a new stage in Turkeys actions against Syria? Could this lead to some kind of military attack, military intervention, so to speak?
Al-Halabi: Eventually I dont expect that Turkey would make more escalations against Syria. It is enough that Turkey has given refuge for those military groups on its territory against Syria and other refugees in order to invest them against the Syrian people and the Syrian leadership.
I think this is the ceiling of the power of Turkey that can use against Syria, just threats because Turkey knew very well that Syria also has allies in the region not only internationally, even in the region here like the Islamic Republic of Iran -- it is the main ally to Syria.
The Syrian cause is just when it will be discussed internationally or regionally against Turkey. Syria didnt make any aggression against Turkey so the threat of Erdogan would be useless when he would say that he will retaliate against any violation on the boundaries of Turkey. Hes the one that made certain violations against other neighbors.
I think no more escalations unless he would declare more propaganda against Syria. But on the ground, on the spot he wouldnt be daring to do anything because he knew that he has a lot of problems inside Turkey itself and he doesnt need more problems to be widened and intensified inside Turkey.
PressTV - ?Turkey threat, retaliation useless against Syria?
Comment: Western thugs and their lapdogs are trying everything they can to justify a NATO attack against Syria. The same process as against Libya.
Why is the wreckage of the aircraft being found in Syrian maritime boundaries if it was shot in international airspace ? Why is the flight path of the said aircraft so provocative , that too in these troubled times for Syria ? At a time when Damascus is being threatened by all , do you expect anything better when you are hell bent on making things difficult for them , seriously ?
