Turkey shoots down Russian jet

[bayonetbrant]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/25/us-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey-idUSKBN0TD0IR20151125

Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday, saying the jet had violated its air space, in one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the plane had been attacked when it was 1 km (0.62 mile) inside Syria and warned of "serious consequences" for what he termed a stab in the back administered by "the accomplices of terrorists".

"We will never tolerate such crimes like the one committed today," Putin said, as Russian and Turkish shares fell on fears of an escalation between the former Cold War enemies.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, Turkey said it had shot down the jet while in Turkish air space. Along with a second plane, the aircraft had flown more than a mile into Turkey for 17 seconds, despite being warned 10 times in five minutes while approaching to change direction, the letter said.

"Nobody should doubt that we made our best efforts to avoid this latest incident. But everyone should respect the right of Turkey to defend its borders," Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.

In condemnation of Russian air strikes in Syria, during which Turkish air space has been violated several times in recent weeks, Erdogan said that only Turkey's "cool-headedness" had prevented worse incidents in the past.

The Russian image from their own press conference appears to put the plane in Turkey


Of course, when you're using a Wal-Mart grade GPS at Mach 2, some errors in location might be expected
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/these-russian-attack-jets-use-walmart-grade-gps-systems-1703048443


NATO, of course, backs Turkey
http://news.yahoo.com/nato-says-backs-turkey-over-russian-plane-182829191--business.html


and didn't take long for the memes to start

[bayonetbrant]

another meme

[Staggerwing]

Turkey's military is nothing to sneeze at. I doubt the Russians would be dumb enough to waste the best part of it's otherwise creaky military assets fighting a country that has a 300,000-strong army with 350 Lep2A4s, a sizable number of modernized M-60Ts and an air force equipped with several Hundred F-16's.

[MikeGER]

... with 350 Lep2A4s, a sizable number of modernized M-60Ts and an air force equipped with several Hundred F-16's.

but all those toys are opereted by well ...Turks  ;)

[Centurion40]

Good advertisement for whoever made that door!

[Airborne Rifles]

The second pilot of the Su-24 has apparently been rescued: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34917485

I know the Russian aren't our favorite people in the world right now, but I think they have very legitimate reasons to be pissed about all this, especially since their SAR Mi-17 was apparently downed by a (US-made) TOW missile. Radical Jihadists shooting down Russian aircraft with sophisticated US-supplied weapons sounds dishearteningly familiar  :(.

About the only good I could possibly foresee coming out of this would be for the Russians to start dumping weapons and resources on the Kurds as a poke in the eye to Turkey. 

[Centurion40]

The second pilot of the Su-24 has apparently been rescued: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34917485

I know the Russian aren't our favorite people in the world right now, but I think they have very legitimate reasons to be pissed about all this, especially since their SAR Mi-17 was apparently downed by a (US-made) TOW missile. Radical Jihadists shooting down Russian aircraft with sophisticated US-supplied weapons sounds dishearteningly familiar  :(.

About the only good I could possibly foresee coming out of this would be for the Russians to start dumping weapons and resources on the Kurds as a poke in the eye to Turkey.

I'm glad that the other pilot is safe.

This incident has uncovered an angle of this conflict about which I had been entirely ignorant; Syrian Turks being trained, supplied and entirely supported by Turkey.  I believe that it was Syrian Turk combatants shooting at the parachuting Russians, shouting "Allahu akbar!"

[OJsDad]

Have to wonder if the downing of the SAR helo was more an issue of not knowing who they were or what they were doing.  I wonder if a Turkish SAR helo would have come under fire.

[LongBlade]

In case anyone were counting...

But the Turkish air force doesn't seem to be too careful about entering Greek airspace, according to numbers from the University of Thessaly. A tally shows the Turks committed a total of 2,244 violations in 2014, up from 636 in 2013.

source: http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/24/turkey-violated-greek-airspace-2244-times-last-year-fires-at-russia-for-doing-it-once/

[Centurion40]

WTF is going on with the Turks?

[LongBlade]

WTF is going on with the Turks?

Tension between Turkey and Greece has been simmering for more than half a century. See: partition of Cyprus.

[Centurion40]

WTF is going on with the Turks?

Tension between Turkey and Greece has been simmering for more than half a century. See: partition of Cyprus.

Oh yeah, it goes back to the Ottomans; but why the recent, dramatic increase since 2014?  Do the Turks sense weakness because of Greece's economic woes, or is something else going on?

Erdogan did assume office in 2014.

[Gusington]

The crumbling of Turkey's secular government and its evolution into a theocracy.

[LongBlade]

Yeah, probably all of the above.

[W8taminute]

You just made a very stupid mistake.  RIP Turgay.