A Russo-Turkey War in the Cards:TURKEY SHOOTS DOWN RUSSIAN JET

The Russian Sukhoi Su-24 jet was shot down by Turkish F-16 fighter planes on Tuesday morning after violating the country's air space and ignoring 'ten warnings in the space of five minutes', army officials said. However, Russia's Ministry of Defence claims the jet was in Syrian airspace, and was shot down from the ground. Footage reportedly filmed by rebels in Syria's Turkomen Mountains, an area which has been the cause of recent tensions between Turkey and Russia, shows local fighters cheer as they uncover the body of one of the Russian pilots. The men can be seen surrounding the corpse of the pilot, wearing Russian military fatigues, shouting 'Allahu Akbar' - 'God is great'. The area is mainly populated by Turkmens - Syrians citizens, but ethnic Turks - and it has been the target of a Syrian government offensive over the past week, where President Bashar al-Assad's ground troops have been supported by Russian airstrikes. Both pilots ejected themselves from the jet and could be seen parachuting down to the ground, where one has been reported as captured by Syrian Turkmen rebels who are hunting for the second pilot.

Putin warns Turkey there will be 'serious consequences' for 'stabbing Russia in the back' by shooting down one of its jets… as video emerges of rebels chanting 'Allahu Akbar' over the body of dead pilot Turkish army has shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 war plane near its Syrian border, officials confirm The Russian jet had violated Turkish air space and ignored ten warnings in five minutes, army says Putin called Turkey's decision to shoot down the plane a 'stab in the back by the terrorists' accomplices' Russia claims the jet, which crashed in Syria's Turkomen Mountains, had been in Syrian airspace when it was hit In response, Turkish army released flight tracking data showing where the jet violated its airspace One pilot dead, the other reportedly captured by Turkmen - ethnic Turks subjected to Russian airstrikes this week President Vladimir Putin has accused Turkey of funding ISIS, and using its military to protect the terrorist organisation, after a Russian fighter jet was shot down near the Syrian border on Tuesday morning. The two-pilot Sukhoi Su-24 jet was shot down by F-16 fighter planes just after 9am this morning, after it violated Turkish airspace and ignored nearly a dozen warnings by the military, Ankara officials said. President Putin called Turkey's decision to down the plane a 'stab in the back' by the accomplices of ISIS, as his Defence Ministry still claims the jet was flying over Syria and never entered Turkish airspace.   +19 This image shows the moment the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 jet was shot down by Turkish F-16 fighter planes near the Turkish-Syrian border, in Hatay, which has seen NATO call an 'extraordinary' meeting and Russian President Putin warn of 'serious consequences' +19 Conflicting stories: Turkey claims they shot the plane down as it was violating the country's airspace after the pilots ignored 'ten warnings in the space of five minutes', but Russia says the jet was in Syrian airspace 'Proof'? This image, left, accompanied by a video, right, claims to show one of the Russian pilots found dead by Turkmen rebels 'The loss we suffered today came from a stab in the back delivered by accomplices of the terrorists,' President Putin said, speaking at a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Sochi, Russia, on Thursday afternoon. 'We will never tolerate such atrocities as happened today and we hope that the international community will find the strength to join forces and fight this evil,' Putin said. The president warned that 'today's tragic event will have serious consequences for Russian-Turkish relations', shortly before Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cancelled tomorrow's visit to Turkey, where the two nations were due to discuss Syria. Putin boldly claimed that Turkey has been buying oil from ISIS, funding the terrorist group, and accused Ankara of protecting the jihadists with the country's military, Moscow-funded RT.com reports. The Russian president's warning came as Syrian insurgents reportedly shot down rescue helicopter as it was searching for the pilots from the downed warplane. An insurgent group in Syria's Latakia province hit the helicopter with an anti-tank missile, forcing it to make an emergency landing, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.   +19 Russian President Vladimir Putin called Turkey's decision to down the plane a 'stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorists' +19 Flight: This map shows the route of the Russian jet (shown in red), based on data released by the Turkish government, including where it violated Turkish airspace, and the area in the Turkomen Mountains where it crashed Footage reportedly filmed by rebels in Syria's Turkomen Mountains, an area which has been the cause of recent tensions between Turkey and Russia, emerged showing local fighters cheer as they discover the body of one of the Russian pilots. The video, posted on Twitter by a man believed to be a Syrian-Turkmen rebel soldier, shows at least a dozen men surrounding the corpse of the pilot, dressed in Russian military fatigues, and some are heard shouting 'Allahu Akbar' – 'God is great'. Local rebels said the pilot, who can be seen covered in bruises and burns in the video, was already deceased when he landed, and that none of the Russian pilots had been killed by Syrian fighters. The area is mainly populated by Turkmens - Syrians citizens, but ethnic Turks - and is the target of a current Syrian government offensive, where President Bashar al-Assad's ground troops are supported by Russian airstrikes. The Turkish army said the pilots of the Russian jet had been warned 'ten times in the space of five minutes' before the plane was shot down. Both pilots ejected themselves from the jet and could be seen parachuting down to the ground, where one has been reported dead and the other captured by Syrian Turkmen rebels.  The Turkomen Mountains is controlled by several insurgent groups, who are not allied with ISIS, including al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, and the 2nd Coastal Division that consists of local Turkmen fighters. Footage reportedly filmed in Syria's Turkomen Mountains shows local fighters cheer as they discover the body of one of the Russian pilots At least a dozen men surround the corpse of the pilot, dressed in Russian military fatigues, and some are heard shouting 'Allahu Akbar' +19 Hit: Video footage shows the plane coming down engulfed in flames after being shot by Turkish fighter jets +19 Filmed: The incident was caught on camera and has been broadcast on Turkish local TV and online Just hours before the Russian jet was shot down, Ankara called for a U.N Security Council meeting to discuss attacks on Turkmen areas in Syria, which have forced some 1,700 civilians to flee their homes in the last three days, according to Turkish officials. It followed a summoning of Moscow's ambassador on Friday, when Ankara demanded an immediate end to the Russian military operation near the Syrian border saying the Russian actions did not 'constitute a fight against terrorism' but the bombing of civilians. Ambassador Andrey Karlov was warned during the meeting that the Russian operations could lead to serious consequences, the ministry said.   Turkish officials said the Russian plane was first warned that it was within ten miles of the Turkish border, and the aircraft then crossed over Turkish territory, adding that a second plane had also approached the border and been warned. 'The data we have is very clear. There were two planes approaching our border, we warned them as they were getting too close,' a senior Turkish official said. 'We warned them to avoid entering Turkish airspace before they did, and we warned them many times. Our findings show clearly that Turkish airspace was violated multiple times. And they violated it knowingly,' the official said. NATO allies will hold an 'extraordinary' meeting later today at Ankara's request to discuss Tuesday morning's incident, an alliance official said. 'At the request of Turkey, the North Atlantic Council will hold an extraordinary meeting at 4pm. The aim of this extraordinary NAC is for Turkey to inform Allies about the downing of a Russian airplane,' the official said. The North Atlantic Council consists of ambassadors from the 28 NATO member states.     One of the pilots can be seen parachuting down after ejecting from the plane, as the wreckage burns +19 This image released by the Turkish Army reportedly shows the flight radar tracking the movement of the downed Russian Sukhoi Su-24 jet, showing where it entered Turkish air space and where it went down A Turkish military statement, issued before it was confirmed that the jet was Russian, said the plane entered Turkish airspace over the town of Yayladagi, in Hatay province. 'On Nov. 24, 2015 at around 09.20am, a plane whose nationality is not known violated the Turkish airspace despite several warnings (ten times within five minutes) in the area of Yayladagi, Hatary. 'Two F-16 planes on aerial patrol duty in the area intervened against the plane in question in accordance with the rules of engagement at 09.24am.' The Turkish Army later released a radar analysis image which they say tracks the movement of the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 jet, showing where it entered Turkish air space, and where it went down. 'This isn't an action against any specific country. Our F-16s took the necessary steps to defend Turkey's sovereign territory,' a Turkish official told news agencies on condition of anonymity. Russia's Defence Ministry said in a statement that they are looking into the circumstances of the crash of the Russian jet. 'The Ministry of Defence would like to stress that the plane was over the Syrian territory throughout the flight.' The statement also claimed that the Sukhoi-24 had been shot down from the ground at the altitude of 6,000metres(3.73m). DOWNING OF RUSSIAN JET ADDS TO 'TOXIC COCKTAIL' IN THE REGION, EXPERTS SAY Turkey shooting down a Russian jet on Tuesday morning is just proof of the 'toxic cocktail' of dangers in the region which could erupt into crisis with devastating effect, an expert has warned. Middle East expert Shashank Joshi, from the Royal United Services Institute, said the skies over Syria and Turkey are an 'incredibly crowded airspace', with planes from both nations and members of the US-led coalition against IS - including the UK - operating. Turkey, a Nato member, has already complained about Russian incursions into its skies and last month the alliance condemned the 'unacceptable violations of Turkish airspace by Russian combat aircraft'. Mr Joshi said: 'The situation is dangerous because Russia is quite probably deliberately probing Turkish airspace both for military reasons and political reasons.' The Russians will be testing the military responses of the Nato member, but also carrying out the same 'psychological intimidation' tactics used in the Baltic and North Atlantic, he suggested. The combination of the crowded airspace, Russian probing tactics and the diplomatic tensions create a 'real toxic cocktail that can easily erupt into crisis', he warned. Ankara will be 'furious' at the incursion and Russia can expect Nato to strike a 'tough' note, but behind the scenes there will be intense diplomatic efforts to calm tensions. But if Moscow responds in a provocative way, there is a risk of the crisis escalating. Mr Joshi warned: 'These things always proceed in a very unpredictable fashion. We have seen how conflicts can begin when there are large alliances.' +19 Ejected: The two pilots of the Russian Sukhoi-24 jet can be seen parachuting down after the plane was hit +19 Russia's Ministry of Defence claims the jet was in Syrian airspace, and was shot down from the ground Vladimir Putin's spokesman called the downing of the Su-24 warplane a 'very serious incident' but declined to comment further until more facts emerged. 'It is just impossible to say something without having full information,' said Dmitry Peskov. Russia's government-run TV Zvezda claimed the warplane had been in Syrian airspace the entire time, which allegedly could be proven by 'control systems', a ministry spokesman said. 'It's the kind of thing we're been warning about,' said Ian Kearns, director of the European Leadership Network think-tank in London. 'And it's a direct military engagement between a NATO country and Russia, so I think it's a serious incident in anybody's book.' Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has spoken with the chief of military staff and the foreign minister about the developments on the Syrian border, the prime minister's office said in a statement, without mentioning the downed jet. He has ordered the foreign ministry to consult with NATO, the United Nations and related countries on the latest developments, his office said. Last month, Turkish jets shot down an unidentified drone that had also violated Turkey's airspace.   Turkey and Russia have long been at loggerheads over the Syrian conflict, with Ankara seeking Assad's overthrow while Moscow does everything to keep him in power.  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to visit Turkey on Wednesday to discuss Syria, in a trip arranged before this incident.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is meanwhile expected to visit Russia for talks with Putin in late December. Russia's participation in the Syrian peace process talks in Vienna, the co-operation on the UN Security Council resolution and meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Nato leaders provided signs of a renewed diplomatic engagement between Moscow and the West in recent weeks. French President Francois Hollande will meet Mr Putin on Thursday and Russia has offered co-operation in the fight against IS following the atrocities in Paris and the downing of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt. Russian pilots operating out of the Latakia air base in Syria have a small escape kit to help them on the ground if they are forced to eject from their jet. In the Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer, the escape kit is located in a small compartment underneath the ejector seat. The escape kit contains an inflatable raft, in case the aircraft is brought down over water. There is also a radio beacon which will relay the pilot's location to any potential rescue aircraft. The pilot also has a radio, signal flares, a machete and a knife. It is likely the pilot will have a sidearm to defend himself.  +19 Russian pilots are equipped with a small escape kit in a compartment underneath their ejector seat +19 Among the basic equipment in the escape kit is a machette, pictured, and a small supply of water

The war to wipe out IS will be used as a front to run “other” operations The Donald will play the front man, and showman very well The danger of the Trump team is finally coming out into the open. The rumblings from his grass roots supporters have started, the dummies who got suckered with his snake oil pitch about draining the swamp and making America great now have to take their bitter medicine. He is going to make it great alright, great for his real backers who are so self-assured that they are coming out front and center. They are convinced that the public is so stupid, so beaten down, that no extreme measures have to be taken to hide their intentions. They can wee wee on our shoes, hire a PR team to tell us it’s raining, and more than 51% will buy it. After all, the American public is the same one that swallowed a 9-11 commission report without a whimper, even after several of the commissioners admitted that it was a fraud by stating on speaking tours that they knew witnesses perjured themselves and withheld evidence, but none of that was illegal, as no testimony was taken under oath. VT warned that if they got away scot free, as they did, they would be back later to give us another dose. And as the famous line from the little girl from the movie ET, “They’re heeerre!” The duped grassroots folks will raise a little hell, but will be ignored again. Their lost support for Trump can easily be replaced by the huge gravy train that is now in play. The masses will be fed their dead-end wedge issues to keep them happy, while the mega thieves steal everything they want. In the past few days, there have been monumental but unreported, unevaluated and even unseen events that make the world war a near certainty when and if Trump becomes the American president. Behind the scenes, the neocon cabal that many believe staged 9/11 and that certainly fabricated the casus belli to justify what was intended to be an American conquest of Central Asia, has now emerged as the real power behind Trump. Netanyahu and Adelson will have a finger in the Turmp pie Behind it all, the usual cast of players, most visibly Israel’s Netanyahu, who had kept his head down after warnings from Russia but whose air force began bombing Syrian positions today, another betrayal of a deal made with Putin and most likely green-lighted by Trump. How could so many people be wrong? One explanation could be through extrapolation of the fake news phenomenon. Fake intelligence has been the watchword since the first days of the Bush (41) administration, when the neocons now creeping back into Washington behind their stealth candidate, Trump, tried first to burn down the world. With the November 25, 2016 announcement by Erdogan that he has scrapped his deal with Russia over cooperation with Syria and plans to move to oust both Assad and Russia from Syria, war with Turkey and perhaps NATO as well, is a near certainty. In Washington, unconfirmed but probable President Elect Trump has surrounded himself, with the exception of National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, with Russia haters. Leading the list is Congressman Mike Pompeo who is slated to head the CIA. Mike Pompeo Pompeo, with a razor thin CV, believes defeating ISIS can only be accomplished by invading Iran, who he insists is their primary supporter. With strategic analytical capabilities like this, terrorism could have no better friend than Pompeo at CIA. With Georgia’s Israeli backed move against Russia in 2008, the new “axis of evil” in the region, Ukraine, Turkey and Georgia are likely to target Armenia and offer it to the US as a base of operations for Trump’s proposed invasion of Iran, cornerstone of his planned upcoming regional war in Asia. From F. William Engdahl, an assessment that cannot be ignored: “I state clearly my conviction, and please recall this as Trump Presidency policies unfold after January 20, 2017 to see if I am correct or not: Donald Trump was put into office to prepare America for war, a war the banks of Wall Street and the US military industrial complex are not presently in a position economically or industrially or otherwise, geopolitically, to win. His job will be to reposition the United States for them to reverse the trend to disintegration of American global hegemony, to, as the Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz Project for the New American Century put it in their September, 2000 report, “rebuild America’s defenses.” To do that preparation, a deception strategy that will fatally weaken the developing deep bonds between Russia and China will be priority. It’s already begun. We have a friendly phone call from The Donald to Vladimir the Fearsome in Moscow. Russian media is euphoric about a new era in US-Russia relations after Obama. Then suddenly we hear the war-mongering NATO head, Stoltenberg, suddenly purr soothing words to Russia. Float the idea that California Congressman and Putin acquaintance, Dana Rohrabacher, is leaked as a possible Secretary of State. It’s classic Kissinger Balance of Power geopolitics–seem to ally with the weaker of two mortal enemies, Russia, to isolate the stronger, China. Presumably Vladimir Putin is not so naïve or stupid as to fall for it, but that is the plot of Trump’s handlers. Such a strategy of preventing the growing Russia-China cooperation was urged by Zbigniew Brzezinski in a statement this past summer.” In the US, advisors for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have stopped just short of openly accusing Russia of hacking the American election and are now claiming “outside sources” are responsible, they mean Russia. In Germany, the same process is going on, Russia is being accused of planning to hack their upcoming elections as well. These accusations are nothing new and blaming Russia has been a game that has gone on for decades but the circumstances today are much different. Russia has real reason to fear the outcome of both American and German elections, particularly with Turkey now approaching a “red line” in Syria, directly challenging vital Russian national interests. Turkish Grey Wolves Turkey has also been involved in Ukraine and Turkish “Grey Wolves,” government sanctioned terror groups, have been deployed to threaten Crimea, this done during the supposed “rewarming” of relations between Ankara and Moscow. For Russia, seeing Clinton in the presidency and Merkel back in power in Germany, raised the potential for broad NATO support against Russia on behalf of Turkish expansionism. More frightening, perhaps, is Trump’s bellicose moves against Iran. Sources report that Trump sent his son, Donald Jr., to meet with Turkish representatives to discuss joint operations against Iran and that Erdogan’s announcement scrapping his deal with Russia is a direct result of that Paris meeting. All this occurred only 24 hours after Tehran announced a warming in relations with Turkey, a new diplomatic initiative that lasted one day. Few, with the exception of Engdahl, have bothered to note the inconsistency in announced Trump policies involving Saudi Arabia. With Saudi cash and the powerful Israeli and Turkish machines in Washington vetting Trump appointments, the agenda is clear, a return to the plan outlined by the Project for a New American Century, with America’s military serving as “thug power” behind an international criminal cabal.Double dealing tyrant who's sabotaging the West's battle to crush ISIS: Turkey's Erdogan seems to be doing almost everything he can to cripple the forces actually fighting ISIS, By   Erdogan's planes have aimed their missiles almost exclusively at the one army which poses a real threat to ISIS - the Kurdish PKK forces inside Syria Despotic presidents tend to have many admirers who will hail them as saviours of their nations. But they also have a tendency to lock horns with other despots. The clash between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian fighter, is one which has set the entire world on edge as diplomats desperately work overtime to reduce the tension. Putin is not blameless in this affair. His air force has been probing Western air spaces provocatively in a number of different locations in recent months. But was the Russian president right, after the downing of the jet, to accuse ‘back-stabbing’ Turkey of being the accomplices of ISIS terrorists? And was there any truth in Putin’s accusation yesterday — made just as Moscow was expelling 39 Turkish businessmen attending a conference in Russia — that Turkey is propping up ISIS by buying oil from them? This latest claim inevitably prompted a furious response from Erdogan, who accused Putin of slander. But the fact is that Erdogan’s regime has on many occasions turned a blind eye to ISIS activity in Turkey, as well as to Turkish businessmen and smugglers doing trade deals with the jihadist butchers. To be fair, on the surface, Turkey’s president is fully involved in the fight against ISIS. In October he allowed U.S. jets to use Turkey’s Incirlik air base for operations against ISIS, pledging that his forces, too, would join the fight. But the truth is that Turkey’s planes have aimed their missiles almost exclusively at the one army which poses a real threat to ISIS, and has won countless battlefield victories against them — the Kurdish PKK forces inside Syria. The trouble is that Erdogan, who has spent years ruthlessly concentrating power into his own hands, considers the Kurds an even greater threat to his nation than ISIS. 1 shares A fifth of Turkey’s 75 million people are Kurds who, along with fellow Kurds in Syria, Iran and Iraq, want to form their own country, with a population of some 40 million. Erdogan sees this plan for a Kurdish nation as a mortal threat to Turkey and will take any opportunity to attack those behind it. Furthermore, he loathes Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. And if ISIS is weakened, Assad’s forces — backed by Russia — will be strengthened commensurately. The fact is that ISIS could rapidly be destroyed if Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq — along with Kurdish guerillas in Turkey — were fully unleashed. They have proved extraordinarily militarily effective and oppose every aspect of Isis’s devilish ideology. Yet this does not happen because PKK forces in Syria and Kurds in northern Iraq are under continual bombardment by the Turkish air force. No, the fact is that while Turkey may be a member of Nato — and of the alliance taking on the jihadists — Erdogan seems to be doing almost everything he can to cripple the forces actually fighting ISIS. But then Erdogan has always been utterly ruthless when it comes to protecting his own interests. He became prime minister of Turkey back in 2003, has been re-elected three times, and last year became the country’s first directly elected president. +4 On the brink: The Russian jet pictured as its plummets towards the ground after being shot by Turkish forces Until this happened, the presidency had been a largely ceremonial role. But Erdogan is transforming it to grant himself immense executive powers, like a latter-day Sultan. And he’s had no hesitation in using these powers before he’s even had the constitution changed. When his party did relatively poorly in an election earlier this year, largely due to a popular new Kurdish party, he declared the election should be re-run. In the meantime, he broke off peace talks with Kurdish militants in Turkey — aimed at winning him Kurdish votes and bringing to an end a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives in the country in 30 years — and drummed up populist support by denouncing all Kurds as terrorists. His Muslim AKP party incited mobs of their supporters to burn down the offices of the rival Kurdish HDP party, while the army put Kurdish cities under virtual occupation. In other words Erdogan actively risked an ethnic civil war to win re-election. Even though the economy crashed when a vast bubble of easy credit and over-expansion popped, Erdogan decided to build himself a 1,000-room presidential palace costing £230 million in what was a charming national park and zoo. But perhaps the most worrying aspect of Erdogan’s consolidation of power is that it has gone hand in hand with his transformation of Turkey — a country with a 500,000-strong army — from a secular into an Islamist state. Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 as a secular republic by the ‘father of the nation’, Kemal Ataturk, after the collapse of the mighty Ottoman Empire, of which Islam was the main religion and where Sunni clerics were hugely influential. In Ataturk’s new republic, the clerics were marginalised in terms of government influence. Government officials (who were often generals) at gatherings where imams were present always made a point of offering delegates the local spirit ‘raki’ — even though Muslims are forbidden to touch alcohol. +4 Flight: This map shows the route of the Russian jet (shown in red), based on data released by the Turkish army, including where it violated Turkish airspace, and the area in the Turkomen Mountains where it crashed Whenever the Islamists appeared to be getting too powerful, the army would move in to remove them. In the decades before Erdogan came to power, the army had intervened four times to curb Islamist influence. Erdogan himself was jailed in 1997 when he was mayor of Istanbul and active in Islamist circles. It was an experience he never forgot and in 2012, when he was prime Minister, he got his revenge by putting 324 serving officers on trial. Some were jailed for 20 years, reportedly as a result of fabricated evidence. Funding for the armed forces, meanwhile, was cut by 30 per cent. To help crush the independence of the armed forces, Erdogan relied on a shadowy network called the Gulenists, a sect-like elite which had infiltrated the judiciary, prosecution service and police. Once they had served their purpose, Erdogan jettisoned them — and the sect’s leader is now exiled in Pennsylvania. Thousands of prosecutors and police have been purged, political protests have been crushed, investigations into corruption dismissed and the country’s relatively free media repressed. In June 2014, politically connected developers tried to concrete over the only park in central Istanbul with a new barracks, a mosque and a shopping mall, infuriating young secular Turks who were already angry at Erdogan’s introduction of curbs on alcohol sales after 10pm. The police waded in to attack what Erdogan called ‘bums’. +4 Worrying numbers of young Turks, including members of the youth wing of Erdogan’s AKP party, now support ISIS This came on top of the regime’s annulment of a clause in the penal code that made it punishable for couples (and imams) to conduct a religious marriage without a prior civil ceremony. Many secular Turkish women felt this Islamisation of marriage opened the way for polygamy, child brides, and one-sided divorce settlements in which husbands could enjoy a legal separation simply by telling their wives ‘I divorce you’ three times. Private citizens are harassed, as well as protesting crowds. In January, Merve Buyuksarac, the 26-year old brunette former Miss Turkey, was arrested for tweeting a poem that allegedly mocked Erdogan. Meanwhile, Turkish journalists have been beaten up by AKP supporters, and foreigners have been deported for trying to report the war brewing in south-eastern Turkey with the Kurds. And, all the time, the violent Islamists are gaining in strength. In his obsession with removing Syria’s President Assad, Erdogan has ignored the way ISIS has quietly infiltrated dingy and depressed Turkish towns through which they funnel foreign jihadists to Syria. Turkish smugglers buy ISIS oil by the tanker load. Worrying numbers of young Turks, including members of the youth wing of Erdogan’s AKP party, now support ISIS. In the aftermath of the ISIS attack on Paris, Turkish football fans booed during the minute’s silence for victims at a match in Istanbul between Turkey and Greece. There were even cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ — the Islamic phrase meaning ‘God is greater’. Before this year’s elections, ISIS launched two bomb attacks in Turkey on Kurdish rallies in Suruc in July and Ankara in October, killing 134 people in total. Yet despite this, 7 per cent of Turks do not regard ISIS as terrorists, and more than 15 per cent say they are not a threat to Turkey. Erdogan’s deep fear is not ISIS, but rather 40 million Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran who might coalesce into a single new state. That’s why he has been bombing the Kurds (and illegally sending his planes into northern Iraq to hit PKK bases) rather than focusing on ISIS. That’s why, too, Vladimir Putin is at least partly right to accuse him of duplicity in his fight against ISIS. Erdogan may want to join the EU, but he’s only a fair-weather friend of the West. Moscow to Deploy the Most Advanced Missile Defense System to Syria: Moscow to deploy S-400 defense missile system to Khmeimim airbase in Syria An S-400 “Triumf” antiaircraft missile system. The Russian Air Force base in Latakia will be reinforced with S-400 SAM system, which will soon be deployed there, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Wednesday. “S-400 will be deployed on Khmeimim airbase in Syria,” Shoigu said at a Defense Ministry meeting. Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Su-24 was shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet near the Turkish-Syrian border. One pilot died in the incident. The second one was rescued and brought to the Russian airbase in Latakia. Moscow maintains the jet did not violate Turkey’s airspace. It ditched on Syria’s territory four kilometers from the border. Ankara defends ISIS, Turkish officials have financial interest in oil trade with group – PM Medvedev Shortly afterwards, the MoD announced three steps to be taken following the attack on the Russian Su-24 bomber, including providing aerial cover by fighter jets for every airstrike, boosting air defense by deploying guided missile cruisers off the Latakia coast, and suspending all military-to-military contacts with Turkey. The S-400 is Russia’s most advanced anti-aircraft defense system. It is as an upgrade of the S-300 Growler family, designed and developed by Almaz Antei. The S-400 is employed to ensure air defense using long- and medium-range missiles that can hit aerial targets at ranges up to 400 kilometers. The S-400 is capable of hitting tactical and strategic aircraft as well as ballistic and cruise missiles. The system includes a set of radars, missile launchers and command posts, and is operated solely by the Russian military. Khmeimim airbase in Latakia, Syria, accommodates Russian Air Force squadrons of Su-27SM and Su-30 fighter jets, Su-34 and Su-24 tactical bombers, which are all taking part in airstrikes on Islamic State positions. The airbase is protected by state-of-the-art air defense systems and radars. Khmeimim also has a fully operational unit for maintaining fixed- and rotor-wing aircraft and providing logistical assistance to pilots. “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide” in the wake of his insane decision to shoot down a Russian plane for a trivial, most likely nonexistent, border violation, Erdogan has finished tearing his own legacy to shreds. He may also have set the stage for the carving-up of Turkey, in accordance with Israel’s ongoing Oded Yinon plan to balkanize the Middle East. Erdogan’s decision to join the war on Syria ended his “no problems with neighbors” policy with a vengeance. Today, there is no country on earth with more problems with its neighbors than Turkey. Russia is furious and planning revenge. Ditto Assad. Ditto Iran. Iraq too. And the Kurds are literally up in arms battling Erdogan’s ISIS proxies and setting the stage for the dismemberment of Turkey. Meanwhile, the Turkish economy is sinking, Turkish society is fragmenting, and the Ergenekon heroin-smuggling neocon creeps and Grey Wolf weirdos are howling for blood. How in the world did Erdogan blunder into this mess? Apparently NATO’s high command informed Erdogan in 2011 that regime change in Syria was a done deal. They were going to do to Assad what they just did to Qaddafi. Nobody could stop them. Erdogan could either join the bandwagon and play the lead role running post-regime-change Syria, or he would be left behind. Erdogan bit. SUCKER! It was a trap. Like Saddam Hussein, who was lured into invading Kuwait by US-ordered slant drilling, loan-calling-in, and Bush’s agent April Glaspie, Erdogan was suckered into waging a disastrous war designed to destroy not only Syria, but Turkey as well. Had Erdogan told NATO to go stuff it, as he did in 2003, Turkey would still be enjoying near-double-digit growth, and its President would be the most popular leader in Turkish history, right up there with Suleiman the Magnificent, and far ahead of scumbag Attaturk – whose legacy he could have finished shredding. But once again, a Middle Eastern leader believed what the imperialists told him. Like Qaddafi, who thought cooperating with the West and abandoning his WMD would  be appreciated, and like Saddam Hussein, who thought that if he only waged wars the West told him to wage he would be fine, Erdogan believed NATO when they told him, in early 2011, that he would get to run Syria very very soon, just as soon as they got rid of Assad…on the condition that he join the regime change operation. Now Russia is going to declare covert war on Turkey. They are going to smash Turkey’s anti-Assad proxies, not just ISIS but all the others as well, into tiny pieces. And they are going to ratchet up support to the PKK, which is now in a position to achieve its decades-old aspirations for the dismemberment of Turkey and the establishment of an independent Kurdistan. This Thanksgiving, Turkey’s total turkey of a president has set up Turkey to get stuffed, carved up, and devoured. Moscow Warns CIA, Not Turkey, Downed Russian Fighter Plane Over Syria A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) on the downing of an Aerospace ForcesSukhoi Su-24M bomber aircraft over Syria yesterday states that it was a deliberate act perpetrated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who were at the time of this catastrophe “controlling/operating” a Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet on a supposed to be photographic reconnaissance mission. According to this report, under the terms and provisions outlined in the 20 October agreement, whose full name is “The Memorandum of Mutual Understanding between the Defense Ministries of Russia and the United States on preventing incidents and providing for aviation flights during operations in Syria”, Aerospace Forces conducting combat missions in the Levant War Zone over Syria were notified yesterday by US Air Force flight controllers operating out of Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base that a Turkish Air Force F-16 was operating near the Turkey-Syrian border. US Air Force flight controllers in further clarifying the “purpose/mission” of this Turkish Air Force F-16 flight, this report continues, stated to their Aerospace Forces counterparts that it was conducting a routine photographic reconnaissance flight for intelligence purposes—which this reports notes is always conducted under the direction of the CIA who mission is monitoring arms shipments from Turkey to Islamic State rebels in Syria. Sensing no threat from this CIA operated Turkish Air Force F-16, this report says, an Aerospace Forces Su-24M bomber returning to its Syrian airbase with its two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter plane escorts “allowed/authorized” them to accelerate towards their base due to low fuel issues and increased its flight altitude to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet) to prevent attacks from ground based fired missiles as per its procedures. Immediately upon the Su-24M reaching the altitude of 6,000 meters, this report grimly states, and without its Su-30 escorts able to protect it, the CIA directed Turkish Air Force F-16 immediately went to hypersonic speed and fired three air-to-air missiles at the Aerospace Forces “target” destroying this Federation bomber and causing its two pilots, Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov and Captain Konstantin Murahtin, to safely eject from their now destroyed plane. After safely ejecting from their destroyed bomber plane, this report continues, Lieutenant Colonel Peshkov and Captain Murahtin, when nearing the ground, were then shot at by Islamic State terrorists who in doing so committed a grave war crime—and which killed Lieutenant Colonel Peshkov whose attackers celebrated his death. Captain Murahtin, however, this report says, was able to be savedwhen the Su-30 escorts returned and provided covering fire to protect him—and who, also, provided air cover for the Aerospace Forces helicopters sent to rescue him. Of the three Aerospace Forces helicopters sent to rescue Captain Murahtin however, MoD experts in this report say, one was destroyed by a US missile fired by Islamic State terrorists killing Naval Infantry Soldier (Marine) Alexandr Pozynich. With MoD satellite data proving that the Su-24M bomber was about 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) in Syrian airspace when it was shot down, this report continues, Turkey then “absurdly” claimed that it had violated its airspace up to a depth of 2.19 kilometers (1.36 miles) for about 17 seconds and had been warned to change its heading 10 times—which would have been impossible as a normal plane-to-plane single “communication transfer” takes at least 45 seconds to occur. Also, this report notes, with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stating in 2012 that a “short-term border violation can never be a pretext for attack”, this disaster became even more bizarre when Turkey yesterday, in a letter to the UN Security Council, openly stated that it had shot down the Su-24M and even admitted it had ordered the attack on the rescue mission for the downed pilots. Though Prime Minister Erdogan has yet to contact President Putin, this report says, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did discuss this disaster with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, who assured Russia that Turkey wants to preserve friendly ties with Moscow, and to which Minister Lavrov replied that the Federation was not planning a war against Turkey. Based on the MoD analysis in this report though, Foreign Minister Lavrov further stated: “We have serious doubts that this act was unintentional. It looks very much like a preplanned provocation.” MoD intelligence experts in this report further support Minister Lavrov by noting it was not a coincidence that a Turkish film crew captured this shootdown either as they were most likely tipped off to be at the right place at the right time—a fact undisputed by even American observers. Critical to note too, this report says, this disaster occurred just days after Turkish officials warned Russia to “immediately end its operation” against these Islamic State terrorists—and which we, in our 23 November report, Putin Declares ISIS On “Brink Of Total Defeat”, Warns NATO War Has Been “Total Lie”, noted the MoD’s grave concerns by stating: “To if the United States led NATO will intervene to protect their Islamic State allies against total defeat and risk World War III with Russia and China, this report warns, is the greatest unanswered question now facing the Federation.” With the CIA having now plotted with certain elements within Turkey to provoke a larger war, this report concludes, President Putinordered this morning that the previous agreement with the United States is now suspended and that the much feared S-400 defense missile system will now be deployed to the Hmeymim airbase in Syria—whose missiles have a range of 250 kilometers (155 miles) [the Turkish border, at its closest, is less than 50 miles away], and when combined with the airspace defense provided by the Moskva naval cruiser, will now spell certain death for any other Turkish-CIA-NATO aircraft should they ever again attempt to target a Federation warplane. 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