Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

[Federate]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

Thank you Bashar and Russian air defence systems

[Vrej1915]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

Turns out, not only azarabaidan manipulates news upside down, but master turkey too ....
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Turkish F-4 warplane 'shot down' near Syrian border

The Turkish military said it lost radio contact with the F-4 while it was flying over Hatay

Turkey has said it believes that one of its fighter jets has been shot down by Syrian security forces.

The F-4 Phantom disappeared over the Mediterranean, south-west of Hatay province, not far from Syria's coast.

PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said initially that "the other side have expressed regret" but later was unable to confirm what had happened.

After an emergency security meeting, his office said it was understood that Syria had brought the plane down.

In a statement, it said a search for the two crew members was under way involving Turkish and Syrian coast guard ships. Once all the circumstances were established, it added that Turkey would respond decisively.

Continue reading the main story
Analysis

Jonathan Head
BBC News, Istanbul
Given the breakdown in relations between the two countries over the Syrian conflict, this incident has the potential to provoke a serious crisis. When gunfire from Syrian forces crossed the Turkish border earlier this year, Ankara threatened a military response.

Much will depend on whether or not the Turkish pilots have survived. If not, public anger might push the government into some kind of punitive action against Syria.

Syria's response will also influence Turkey's reaction. A clear apology, and a statement that the shooting was unintentional, might be enough to assuage Turkish anger.

But then again, we do not know yet whether the aircraft were clearly in Turkish airspace or not. Initial Turkish reports that they came down eight miles from Syrian territorial waters suggests that they were, but Syria may claim otherwise.

"Regarding our pilots, we do not have any information, but at the moment four of our gunboats and some Syrian gunboats are carrying out a joint search there," Mr Erdogan told reporters earlier on Friday evening.

Relations between Nato-member Turkey and Syria, once close allies, have deteriorated sharply since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled the violence across the border into Turkey.

'Syrian waters'
The Turkish military said it lost radio contact with the F-4 at 1158 (0858 GMT) on Friday while it was flying over Hatay, about 90 minutes after it took off from Erhac airbase in the province of Malatya, to the north-west.

The private news channel, NTV, later cited unnamed military sources as saying that the plane had crashed off Hatay's Mediterranean coast, in Syrian territorial waters, but that there had been no border violation.


Witnesses in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia meanwhile told BBC Arabic that Syrian air defences had shot down an unidentified aircraft near the town of Ras al-Basit.

Lebanon's al-Manar television channel - controlled by Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah movement, an ally of the Syrian government - also reported that Syrian security sources had said that "Syrian air defences shot down a Turkish warplane and hit another in Syrian airspace".

Mr Erdogan was also said to have told Turkish reporters on a flight back from Brazil on Friday afternoon that "the other side" had expressed regret over the downing of the F-4, and also that the pilots had been recovered.

But in his televised news conference on arrival at Ankara airport, he indicated that the pilots were still missing and he appeared to play down suggestions of an apology.

"I cannot confirm whether they have apologised or on what grounds they did so if they apologised," the Hurriyet website quoted him as saying.

He then went into a two-hour emergency meeting with his interior, defence and foreign ministers and the Chief of the General Staff, Gen Necdet Ozel.

Aleppo violence
Inside Syria, the violence has continued with state media reporting that "armed terrorist groups" had abducted and massacred 25 villagers in Aleppo province.

Activists said that rebels had shot dead 26 government supporters who were believed to be militiamen. A video has been posted online, purporting to show the bodies of some of the victims in the village of Darat Izza.

In Aleppo city, activists said a number of people died when security forces opened fire on a demonstration after Friday prayers.

International envoy Kofi Annan has said it is time for the world to exert greater pressure to help bring the violence in Syria to an end.

He was speaking in Geneva alongside the head of the UN observer mission, Maj-Gen Robert Mood, who suspended patrols in Syria at the weekend because of the risks to the safety of the 300 observers.

Mr Annan called for Iran to be involved in attempts to end the violence, a proposal put forward by Russia but rejected by the US.

In a separate development, the BBC has learned that UK government officials have decided to prevent the head of the Syrian Olympic Committee, Gen Mowaffak Joumaa, from travelling to London for the Games.

The visa ban is believed to be linked to his relationship to President Bashar al-Assad's government.

The International Olympic Committee is expected to ratify the decision.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18554246

[Vrej1915]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

22 June 2012

Syrian military says it downed Turkish fighter jet

The Syrian military has said it shot down a Turkish plane "flying in airspace over Syrian waters", according to state-run news agency Sana.

The F-4 Phantom disappeared over the Mediterranean, south-west of Hatay province, near the Syrian coast.

Turkey had earlier said it believed that one of its F-4 fighter jets had been shot down by Syrian forces.

A search for the two crew members is under way involving Turkish and Syrian coast guard ships.

A military spokesman told Sana that an "unidentified target" had broached Syrian airspace from a westerly direction at 11:45 local time (08:45 GMT) on Friday.

The target was flying at high speed and at low altitude, the spokesman said.

Anti-aircraft defences had hit the aircraft, bringing it down in the sea off the coast of Latakia province, he added.

"It later became clear the target was a Turkish military plane which had entered our airspace," he continued.

"It was dealt with in accordance with the laws that govern such situations," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18561219

[Federate]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

Alleged video of the downing of the Turkish airplane. Can't see much but you can hear the attack.

[retro]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

Who knows, maybe the Turks will try to use this incident as a premise to 'liberate' Syria.

Turkish jet may have been in Syrian airspace, says Turkish president Abdullah Gul

Turkey conceded on Saturday that a Turkish fighter shot down by Syrian air defences may have crossed into Syrian airspace at the time.

But in an interview on Saturday morning, the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, 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 one of the Turkish Air Force's F-4 Phantom on Friday marked the most dangerous development yet in Syria's 15-month uprising and left Western powers scrambling over how to respond. While countries are co-operating together in a search for the two pilots, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has promised a "decisive" response after the full facts of the incident have been established.

Although he has not divulged what steps he may be contemplating, a senior member of his ruling party declared last night that if the aircraft was shown to have been shot down by Syria it would amount to a "declaration of war". Mr Gul added: "Whatever is necessary will be done."

Mr Erdogan flew home from Brazil to hold an emergency briefing with his intelligence and military chiefs after radio and radar contact was lost with the aircraft as it conducted a mission close to the Syrian coast.
...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ullah-Gul.html

[Haykakan]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

Heh thats a good one - Turck's reason for declaring war is that its own plane violated another countries border. Hell this is way more efficient then the USA creating islamic crazies then attacking claiming there are islamic crazies. Like why bother even giving a reason justattack already or stfu.

[Federate]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

The flight path of the downed plane according to Syria

[Hyreniq]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

You have to be "Libre", to be able to liberate.

Who knows, maybe the Turks will try to use this incident as a premise to 'liberate' Syria.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

Syria air defenses shot down Turkish military plane
DEBKAfile Special Report June 22, 2012,

Syria apologized for the downing of a Turkish military F-4 over Syrian territorial water Friday, June 22. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan denied receiving any apology. Before going into an emergency meeting of government and military heads, he said it was not clear how the plane was lost. Hizbalah’s media reported that the jet was ambushed by Syrian anti-air missiles.
Contact with the Turkish F-4 Phantom was lost shortly after it took off from eastern Erhac Airport and flew over the sea opposite the Turkish-Syrian border not far from the Syrian port of Latakia. The fate of the two pilots is unclear.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Syria laid an ambush for the Turkish warplane in revenge for the defection of the Syrian Air Force pilot Col. Hassan Maray al-Hamadeh to Jordan a day earlier with his MiG-21 warplane. Officials in Damascus are certain his defection was organized by US and Turkish intelligence.
DamPress and other Syrian news agencies reported at 16:00 local time Friday that two military aircraft infiltrated Syrian airspace over Latakia and broke the sound barrier while flying low in threatening formation. One was hit by Syrian anti-air fire and the second escaped. DamPress speculates that the intruders were either Turkish or Israeli.
Since Thursday, Syria’s entire air fleet has been grounded while its spy agencies screen flight personnel for more potential defectors.

Syria grounds fighter-bomber fleet for fear of more defections
DEBKAfile Special Report June 21, 2012,


Syrian President Bashar Assad Thursday night, June 21, ordered his entire Air Force fleet of fighter bombers grounded, for fear that more pilots might defect after Col. Hasan Merhi al-Hamadeh flew to Jordan aboard a MiG-21.
Officials in Damascus noted that the same day was chosen by Washington to confirm that CIA officers were present in southern Turkey to help the Free Syrian Army rebels fight the Syrian government. Syrian officials are convinced that the defection of the pilot with his plane was organized by the Americans and that more are in the pipeline in an attempt to show the Syrian people and Arab world that even the Syrian air force, the part of the armed forces most loyal to Assad, was in fact slipping out of his hands.
DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that, early Thursday, Col, al-Hamadeh flew out of the Khalkhala air base, which is situated between the southern towns of Deraa and Suweida not far from the Druze Mountain.
While his MiG belonged to the 73rd Air Brigade, he was a member of the Syrian Air Force’s 20th Division and commander of the MiG-21 test squadron, which regularly inspects those aircraft at southern air bases to check if they are flight worthy.
That is why no one at the Khalkhala base saw anything amiss when this officer climbed aboard one of the aircraft and suddenly pivoted the plane at a sharp angle - even when he failed to respond to control tower signals. B
But before they could catch on, the MiG-21 was gone over the border to Jordan, a flight of no more than 90 seconds.
Because the Jordanians were not forewarned about an incoming Syrian air force plane, Col. Al-Hamadeh requested permission from the control tower at Al Hussein air base in northern Jordan to make an emergency landing. As soon as the MiG came to a stop on the runway, the Syrian colonel jumped out, shed is uniform and prayed.
Our sources disclose that the defector came from the village of Meles in the Idlib district of northern Syria where he has left his wife, four children and family. This village is one of the few parts of the embattled district to remain in Free Syrian Army rebel hands. Their agents were certainly involved in helping to arrange his escape.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Bashar al-Assad, Syria and the Armenian people

Newly-supplied Russian Pantsyr-1 anti-air missile used to down Turkish warplane
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 23, 2012,

To ambush the Turkish Air Force F-4 Super Phantom Friday, June 22, over Latakia Syria used Russian-made self-propelled medium range anti-air Pantsyr-1 missiles recently supplied by Moscow (not as first reported anti-air Buk-M2 missiles). This weapon can down aircraft flying at altitudes up to 12 kilometers and cruise missiles. The unit responsible for the ambush was the 73rd brigade of the Syrian army’s 26th Air Defense Division.
Since the sophisticated weapons were delivered to the Assad regime in recent weeks, it must be assumed that local missile crews had not finished training in their use and would have had to rely on help from their Russian instructors to fire one.
This would be the first instance in the 15-month Syrian uprising of an advanced Russian-supplied weapon hitting the military target of a NATO member. Hence the comment from Washington by US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland who said: “We’ve seen the reports… We have obviously been in contact with our Turkish ally…. To my knowledge, they haven’t raised this at NATO at this point.”
Ankara has repeatedly threatened to ask NATO to invoke the pact’s article 5 obligating members to come to the aid of a fellow member coming under attack. In this case, however, the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s rhetoric was relatively restrained. He vowed to “determinedly take necessary steps” in response “once the incident is fully clarified,” leaving Ankara’s response deliberately vague.
President Abdullah Gul spoke out more strongly: “It is impossible to ignore our fighter jet being shot down by Syria,” he said after Damascus admitted to shooting down the plane, claiming its air defenses acted according to standard procedure before realizing it was a Turkish air force jet. Both are searching for the two missing pilots.
DEBKAfile’s military experts add: This was also the first time in five years any weapons system with Israeli manufacturing input had faced a Russian weapon acquired by Syria.
The first time was September 6, 2007, when Israeli fighter-bombers demolished the Iranian-North Korean-built nuclear reactor in the northern Syrian town of Al-Kibar. Airspace over the reactor was guarded by Russian Pantsyr-S1 anti-air missiles. Israeli bombers got through by disabling the Russian missiles’ radar so that Damascus never realized its reactor was being bombed until it had been smashed and Israeli bombers were home.
Five years later, Turkey has lost a Super Phantom which had undergone partial upgrading by the Israeli Aerospace Industry. However, two years ago, Ankara broke off its security and military ties with Jerusalem after a clash at sea between Turkish Mavi Marmara and Israel troops wich intercepted the vessel on its way to break Israel’s Gaza blockade, leaving nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists dead.
By severing those ties, the Erdogan government left Israel’s improvements unfinished and the Turkish air force’s F-4 short of counter-measures for evading or attacking the latest Russian-made air defense weapons fired by Syria.
According to, DEBKAfile’s military sources waylaying a Turkish military plane over the sea was therefore a simple matter for the new Pantsyr-1.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan admitted Saturday that the jet was shot down over the Mediterranean around 13 kilometers west of the Syrian port of Latakia. He did not explain what a Turkish bomber fighter was doing over Syrian territorial waters, but the suggestion, which Western military sources have confirmed, was that Turkish military jets have lately been carrying out almost daily reconnaissance flights over the Syrian coast. Moscow and Damascus apparently decided it was time to stop the missions which among other things spied on the Russian arms supplies transiting Russian bases at the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia.