Viewpoint

Stabbing Russia in the Back

Date: 25 November 2015 - 19:51

News ID: ۲۰۹۹۹

By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

Turkey’s utter hypocrisy and reckless hit on a Russian fighter jet over Syria should never come as surprise to anyone.

After all, along with the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Turkey has played a leading role in fomenting terrorism and extremism in Syria since in 2011. Acting as "Jihadist Super-Highway”, it has aided, abetted, and funded ISIL by keeping its southern border open with Syria, allowing radical jihadists from Europe to cross back and forth from ISIL-controlled territory, thereby enabling them to return to Europe to plot and execute such attacks as were recently carried out in the French capital.

More so, Turkish commodity dealers have funded ISIL through their purchase of, by one estimate, $50 million a month in black-market oil. Indeed, reports have surfaced suggesting that none other than Erdogan’s son Bilal has been a key financial benefactor of this criminal business. So Erdogan’s motives for the shoot-down are not terribly difficult to divine, and they have little to do with the alleged violation of Turkey’s sovereign airspace.

Lest we forget, at the G20 Summit in Antalya, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed aerial surveillance and satellite imagery showing a miles-long line of oil-tanker trucks stretching from ISIL-controlled territory into Turkey. And worse, from Erdogan’s standpoint, was the decision made by French President François Hollande to bypass NATO and instead appeal to the EU to invoke its mutual assistance clause, all the while advocating for a coalition against ISIL that would include the Russians and the Iranians. The shoot-down was foolishly designed to ensure that NATO gets in the game, which is exactly what Erdogan, as a treaty member, wants. It is not going to happen though.

NATO policy holders are not having any of it. And while President Obama seem to express support for the Turkish attack, NATO envoys seem largely uncomfortable with the foolish incident, urging Turkey to show "restraint” in the future with planes along their border. Moreover, some EU diplomats have expressed serious concern about Turkey’s actions, saying there are "other ways” to deal with an incursion beyond just shooting the plane down. Indeed, the Pentagon says they can’t even confirm the plane ever entered Turkish airspace.

President Putin is correct to say this was "a stab in the back” by the accomplices of international terrorists. Moscow was not stabbed in the back by Ankara alone. The United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are also responsible. They are directly aiding "moderate” terrorists to affect regime change in Damascus.

Russia, Iran and Syria are involved in the real war on all manners of terrorism and extremism. In the absence of such alliance, Europe will be drowned by the rising tide of Syrian refugees. It’s all the reason why the EU is telling Turkey to stop acting like a fool. The reality is that their regime-change fantasy has turned into a nightmare and they want out.

In summation, Moscow has decided not to retaliate in kind, which is praiseworthy. However, the shoot-down will still have some serious consequences for the Moscow Ankara toes. Moscow has already decided to deploy new air defense equipment to the Syria-Turkey border, all while cutting military contact with Ankara. It is by now self-evident that the reckless shoot-down has had the opposite results.