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June 24th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
In a statement issued after Syria confirmed it had downed the plane, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would take all necessary steps
once it had established the facts.
Foreign Secretary William Hague today condemned Syria for shooting down of a
Turkish fighter jet.
Mr Hague said the “outrageous” act underlined the need for Bashar Assad’s
regime to go.
“I am gravely concerned by the Syrian regime’s action in shooting down a
Turkish military plane on June 22,” Mr Hague said in a statement.
“When I spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister (Ahmet) Davutoglu on 23 June, he
told me that the plane had been shot down without warning.
“This outrageous act underlines how far beyond accepted behaviour the Syrian
regime has put itself and I condemn it wholeheartedly.
“My thoughts and sympathies are with the families and friends of the missing
Turkish pilots. I have made clear to Foreign Minister Davutoglu the UK’s
strong support for the Turkish government at this difficult time.
“The Assad regime should not make the mistake of believing that it can act
with impunity. It will be held to account for its behaviour. The UK stands
ready to pursue robust action at the United Nations Security Council.
“This deplorable incident underlines the urgent need to find a solution to the
current crisis in Syria in order to bring an end to the violence and to
achieve a genuine political transition. We support the Joint UN and Arab
League Special Envoy’s continuing efforts on this.”
NATO member Turkey has become a major critic of President Bashar al-Assad over
his brutal crackdown on opposition protests and rebel groups.
Turkey has taken in more than 30,000 civilians who fled the violence in Syria,
housing them in camps near the border, according to foreign ministry
figures.
Earlier this month, it hosted a key meeting of Syrian opposition activists.
Over the weekend Damascus initally sought to defuse tensions with Turkey
insisting it was “an accident”.
As some Turkish politicians branded the downing of the plane an “act of war”,
a Syrian government spokesman said the aircraft had been an “unidentifiable
object” and that the Syrian military had only realised later that it was a
Turkish F-4 jet.
“We do not want any tension with Ankara,” said Jihad Makdissi, Syria’s foreign
affairs spokesman, in a statement to a Turkish news website on Saturday. “
Hopefully, we can transcend this issue swiftly. All I can say is that the
announcement I have made is Syria’s official stance; there is in no way any
animosity felt towards Turkey and the Turkish public.”
In an interview on Saturday, the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, conceded
that the Turkish plane may have crossed into the country’s airspace at the
time. But he said there was no reason for the Syrian military to have
interpreted the move as a hostile act.
“It is routine for jet fighters to sometimes fly in and out over (national)
borders … when you consider their speed over the sea,” Mr Gul told the
Anatolia news agency. “These are not ill-intentioned things but happen
beyond control due to the jets’ speed.”
The loss of the Turkish Air Force plane on Friday has left Western powers
fearing that Turkey, which has already angered Damascus by sheltering
refugees from the Syrian violence, could end up getting dragged into Syria’s
escalating civil war.
Mr Gul said: “Whatever is necessary will be done.” It was not clear if he was
suggesting military retaliation, increased sanctions against Syria or other
possible steps. But Faruk Celik, Turkey’s Labor and Social Security
Minister, said Turkey would retaliate “either in the diplomatic field or
give other types of response.”
“Even if we assume that there was a violation of Syria’s airspace – though the
situation is still not clear – the Syrian response cannot be to bring down
the plane,” Mr Celik said. “The incident is unacceptable,” he said. “Turkey
cannot endure it in silence.”
The deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, added that contrary to reports, the
plane was not a fighter jet but a reconnaissance aircraft.
The Turkish press has reacted relatively cautiously to the incident. While
some headlines said: “Damascus playing with Fire” and “They will pay for
it”, the overall coverage was not as angry as it sometimes is in responding
to attacks by Kurdish rebels in south-east Turkey.
Soli Ozel, a columnist at the Haberturk newspaper and Professor of
International Relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University, said it was
unlikely that the incident would be declared an act of war and that the
Turkish government was seeking a way to avoid a further escalation of the
crisis.
“If you deem it is an act of war you will go to war. That is why I do not
think they will deem it an act of war. There are plenty of people who have
written in media that we should retaliate and attack, but I don’t really
think that this is the mood in the country.”
Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus in March as relations between the two
countries deteriorated over the crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad on
Syria’s Arab Spring protests. In late May, Ankara also expelled Syria’s
diplomats. There is, however, still a Turkish consulate operating in Aleppo.
On Saturday, Syrian army forces battled rebels and shelled neighbourhoods in
the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, killing at least 28 people, opposition
activists said. The victims, who included three women and several children,
were mostly civilians killed when shells hit their houses in the city’s Old
Airport and al-Hamidya districts, a source at a city hospital told Reuters.
Loyalist forces have lost control of parts of the surrounding Deir al-Zor
province, which borders Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland as alliances between
President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling elite and Sunni tribes have collapsed.
The fighting came as President Assad issued a decree to form a new government,
shaking up many cabinet posts but keeping the heads of the interior, defence
and foreign ministries.
The reappointment of defence minister, Daoud Rajha, will quash widespread
rumours that he had been killed by a rebel hit squad.
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