Officials: Moscow Using Turco-Russian Tensions To Bolster Military Presence
By Burak Ege Bekdil 9:06 p.m. EST December 3, 2015
ANKARA, Turkey — Russia is seen widely abusing a crisis with Turkey over the shooting down of a Russian SU-24 jet in order to augment its military presence in eastern Mediterranean and Syria, Turkish and Western officials say.
They say NATO will reciprocate Russia's military moves in the area already contested by multiple conflicts, including a civil war in Syria.
"We will not let Russia make the game in that region. They are explicitly abusing the incident," said one European Union ambassador in Ankara.
Two Turkish F-16 fighter aircraft "intercepted" and shot down a Russian SU-24 jet Nov. 24 near Turkey's Syrian border. Turkish military general staff said that the intervention came after the Russian jet violated Turkish airspace and was warned 10 times within five minutes. It said the Russian aircraft failed to heed the warnings.
It was the first time a NATO member has downed a Russian or Soviet military aircraft since the 1950s.
Turkey said earlier it would intercept any aircraft violating its airspace along its Syrian border as part of its rules of engagement. The Turkish military said that the jet was of unknown nationality when the Turkish aircraft shot it down. One Russian pilot was killed.
Russia insists its aircraft did not violate Turkish airspace. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman called the downing of the awarplane a "very serious incident," but said it was too early to draw conclusions.
Turkish General Staff released the radar trace analysis of the Russian jet. The analysis, backed by the Pentagon, shows the plane entering the Turkish airspace over the southern province of Hatay while circling over northern Syria.
Putin called the incident "a stab in the back." He declined Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's requests to discuss the issue. He twice refused to meet Erdogan on the sidelines of the Paris Climate Summit. Moscow quickly announced economic sanctions against Ankara, including the introduction of visa restrictions for Turkish citizens and detention of groups of Turkish businessmen traveling to Russia.
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Other measures include warnings to Russian citizens not to travel to Turkey; suspension of big energy projects, including a nuclear power plant; bans on Turkish food exports to Russia; a ban on Turkish workers, and; blocking thousands of Turkish trucks from entry into Russia.
But there is more. Russian Defence Minister Sergeir Shoigu announced Nov. 25 that Russia would deploy S-400 surface-to-air missile systems in its Hmeymim air base in Syria. Press reports said that Russia also plans to build a new military base in Syria.
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In a further move to escalate tensions, Russian General Staff deployed one of its largest air defense ships at the foot of Turkish territorial waters in the Mediterranean. Military spokesman Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said that Russian bomber aircraft would be "supported by chasers, and any kinds of threats will be responded to instantly." The Moskva, one of the Russian Navy's two largest warships and the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, will be deployed where Turkey-Syria territorial waters connect.
Since the shooting down of the Russian jet, the Russian military has been regularly pounding the Syrian villages near the Turkish border populated by the Turkmen, a Turkish ethnicity that supports jihadists in Syria — and is supported by Ankara.
Russia's foothold in the eastern Mediterranean was recently reinforced after an agreement with Cyprus allowed Russian warships to use Cypriot ports. In addition, a Russian naval base at Tartus, Syria, was cemented with an air base at another Syria city, Latakia.
"We want to make sure that this gets diffused and does not become a NATO-Russia crisis, instead of a Turkish-NATO crisis," said one NATO ambassador in Ankara.
After a Dec. 1 meeting at the Paris Climate Conference, US President Barack Obama advised restraint to both Ankara and Moscow.
"The SU-24 affair has the potential to change geostrategic balances in eastern Mediterranean," said one London-based security analyst. "Restraint will be good for every party. But apparently the Russians want to use the incident to advance their agenda in this part of the world."
Another NATO ambassador in Ankara said: "On the good side … this will cement Turkey's ties with the [NATO] alliance."
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