Turkey Intercepts Syrian Airliner

[Rollingthunder]

Turkish fighter planes have forced a Syrian passenger plane to land at Ankara's airport for investigation, Turkish state media report.

The plane, which was travelling from Moscow, was intercepted on intelligence that it was carrying "non-civilian cargo", Turkey's foreign minister said.

He added that Turkey was determined to stop any transfer of weapons to the Syrian government through its airspace.

BBC

[racedo]

But the Syrians are ok with Saudi and Qatari and other weapons to the SFA.....

[Loose rivets]

Just read this on the Beeb site. I think the actions are morally justified, but Syria is one thing, though prodding at a tiger that's sleeping with one eye wide open, is quite another. The implications are very, very far reaching.

[22 Degree Halo]

https://www.facebook.com/flightradar24/posts/422625571132874

Turkey has forced a Syrian passenger plane en route from Moscow to land in Ankara. Turkey says the passenger aircraft is suspected of carrying heavy weapons to Damascus.

You can view the flight on FR24 playback. It looks like the aircraft turned the transponder off near the Turkish coast, on contact with Turkish F16 jets.

Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker! (http://fr24.com/2012-10-10/13:16/SYR442)
Turkey Intercepts Syrian Passenger Airplane - WSJ.com (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443294904578048761733433052.html)

[Admiral346]

This is unbelievable.
What do the Turks think they're doing. Intercepting a civil aircraft of another country not at war with them. This is terrorism, or whatelse would you call a hijack like this?

[captplaystation]

Ercan control finally has its moment of glory. . . . . . :hmm:

[Momoe]

Whilst not officially at war with Syria, there is an ongoing situation and relations between the two aren't exactly cordial.

Turkey doesn't stand for any nonsense and if the Syrian plane was carrying weapons, then fair play to Turkey, it's preventative interdiction.
If your countrymen were shelled and shot at by another country, would you stand idle knowing that weapons were being flown in?

[Herod]

My understanding is that, if it's carrying weaponry, it's effectively a military aircraft and requires diplomatic clearance. Otherwise it's gun-running. Either way, Turkey seems to be within their rights.

[119.4]

BBC Radio 4 10 pm News reports the aircraft has been released

[dwshimoda]

...you need to look up the definition of terrorism before you mis-quote it.

Turkey are well within their rights. Lets see what was on board before we go further.

[22 Degree Halo]

Seems missile parts have been found..[Turkish Media]

[Basil]

If an aircraft is operating outside the terms of its diplomatic clearance then the country issuing the clearance has the right to take action. Seen it happen.

[Jetpipe.]

Just speculating... If the syrian a/c had some ''special'' cargo they would most certainly have been advised (by the Syrian officials) to avoid overflying Turkey and use the diplomatic imbalance between the two countries as an excuse!
It's more likely that Turkey is just bullying Syria to make the situation more unstable... If they can't find a reason to invade why not make something up?? We 've seen it happening before haven't we??

[Midnight Blue]

The job of the Turks is to provoke Syria to do some move, that the NATO finally can invade the country and create a second Iraq-scenario. (Kill the dictator and leave the country in chaos)
Too bad, nobody dared to intercept the US-chartered civilian flights, flying weaponry for attack on Irak in 2002/2003.

[CTRL] BOMB-LADEN U.S. CARGO PLANE BARELY AVERTS MAJOR DISASTER (http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg94237.html)

Why is it, that the academi backed terrorists in Syria are called civilists and the yemeni protesters from 2011 are now called al-quaeda terrorists?

26 protesters killed, hundreds injured in Yemen - CNN (http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-18/world/yemen.violence_1_hasaba-central-security-forces-protesters?_s=PM:WORLD)

Yemen: Al Qaeda affiliate behind blast that killed 101 soldiers - CNN.com (http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/22/world/meast/yemen-violence/index.html)

In both countrys you have some kind of civil-war and our "peace-loving" home-countries are involved in some way.

[flyburg]

Just out of curiosity, but why would this be any different from the Russian ship, suspected of carrying helicopters, that recently got turned away from sailing to Syria by the British navy?

[crewmeal]

What do the Turks think they're doing. Intercepting a civil aircraft of another country not at war with them. This is terrorism, or whatelse would you call a hijack like this?

Because the weapons that the 320 was carrying could in theory be used against Turkey. If someone was to lob a bomb into your back garden you wouldn't take too kindly to it.

Just out of curiosity, but why would this be any different from the Russian ship, suspected of carrying helicopters, that recently got turned away from sailing to Syria by the British navy?

Apart from China and Russia, the rest of the world don't want to re-arm the Assad regime and prolong the civil war.

[jcjeant]

Apart from China and Russia, the rest of the world don't want to re-arm the Assad regime and prolong the civil war. That's one sided opinion :p
Apart China and Russia (and you forget Iran and some other) the rest of the world (or at least parts of) want arm the rebels for prolong the civil war :ok:

[Threethirty]

This is nonsense, the biggest threat is the Free Syrian Army, read these and it all becomes much clearer.

http://landdestroyer.********.hk/2012/10/western-propagandists-attempt-to.html

http://landdestroyer.********.hk/2012/10/turkey-attempts-to-trigger-war-vs-syria.html

http://landdestroyer.********.hk/2012/10/nato-terrorists-mass-slaughter.html

» NATO Designed Mortar Used in Attack Blamed on Syria Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind! (http://www.infowars.com/nato-designed-mortar-used-in-attack-blamed-on-syria/)

[Mr.Bloggs]

Remember how the peace-loving Turks wailed when the Israelis boarded their weapons ship bound for Hamas/Gaza? The peace-loving Turks are amongst the biggest mass killers in history, and they are looking for a war right now. The Syrians are no better, so let them duke it out.

The real danger is that the West and/or Russia get involved. Now that would be a serious business.

[Admiral346]

Quote from RT online:

“Four people onboard have been beaten up, two crew and two passengers, as they tried to force them to sign documents,” Sherin Azis, a hostess on the plane, told RT by phone. “We don’t know what these papers are about. We are scared for the fate of the captain. He was taken away and threatened with arrest if he does not sign an emergency landing paper.”
Fatima al-Saman, a passenger and a mother of three, also told RT that the captain was being forced to sign a release stating that military planes were not involved and the plane just made an emergency landing.
“If we do not agree to these terms, they will take the captain kind of hostage,” al-Saman said. “They are threatening us. The captain has now returned and said that ‘either I sign the document that I made an emergency landing or they are taking me hostage.’”
The plane has been surrounded by people in masks who have detained all the cargo and were looking through what looked like boxes with documents, passengers said. The Turkish authorities were interested in some spare parts, which a businessman bought in Russia and was transporting to Syria, al-Saman said. She said that as far as she could tell, they were clearly not weapons.
“They started unloading some packages. They opened them, took pictures. There were many people. We all saw what was in there. There were no weapons. You could see it with an untrained eye!” she said. “They just had some spare parts and papers – objects, but there were no rockets. It is all a lie.”

Nic

[racedo]

Apart from China and Russia, the rest of the world don't want to re-arm the Assad regime and prolong the civil war.

Its a NATO and Gulf Arab States backed insurgency with them supplying the weapons.

[Admiral346]

Its a NATO and Gulf Arab States backed insurgency with them supplying the weapons.

Exactly.
And everyone who has been following these events from the beginning has seen the massive use of propaganda on the western media.
Well, I don't like Assad's regime, but it simply is the official government of Syria and who are we to change that. They did not threaten anybody, including the Turks.
And now a breach of international treatys.
The question here is: "Cui bono?"

As Syria is Iran's last ally, it looks like setting the stage for an invasion of Iran, another country whose government I don't exactly like, but who has in no way done anything to another country. On the contrary - being a neighbour to Pakistan, a nuclear power, and not far from India and Israel, also nuclear powers, who could blame them for trying to keep a balance of force here. Who threatened any of the three aforementioned countries with invasion, when they gathered their nuclear potential?

Turkey is the gate for NATO to enter into this conflict, and as Turkey strives to gain some regional superpower status, it plays right along...