Turkish F16 shoots down unidentified aircraft in their airspace.

[G0ULI]

I fail to see how Russia will not gain enormous political advantage from this shoot down incident. Russia has been mounting air strikes in Syria in support of President Assad and the official Syrian Government Forces. NATO has been selectively arming various rebel groups fighting against President Assad as well as ISIS and has actively been trying to overthrow the Syrian government.

So whatever way you care to look at it, by shooting down a Russian fighter, Turkey (or Turkish supported rebels) have lost any moral high ground they might have claimed. They have to all intents and purposes shot down an allied aircraft in the fight against ISIS, which makes them, and any supporting NATO countries the bad guys.

Whatever the truth of the incursion into Turkish airspace, the missile that brought down the aircraft was fired from within Syrian airspace and the crash site was within Syria.

The Turks have asserted their authority over their airspace, but made themselves look very bad in doing so. Russia has tragically lost two pilots, but in the overall scheme of things have come out massively ahead in terms of political kudos.