Turkey and Russia in a bit of a Bother

[JackLuis]

Turkish-Russian Relations Worsen As Turkish Helicopter Is Downed

It was the Stingers in Afghanistan that caused the Russians to leave, could this be payback for the Turks?

The “game-changing” downing of a Turkish attack helicopter by Kurdish rebels with a Russian-made missile could further intensify still simmering hostilities between Ankara and Moscow.

Coming nearly six months after a Turkish jets downed a Russian bomber operating from a Syrian airbase, the May 13 incident made front-page news in Turkey. “It was a message to [the] government and public,” commented Metehan Demir, an independent defense analyst and former Turkish military pilot.

The missile featured in a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) video of the attack “is a Russian-made SA18 or SA24,” he noted, using the North Atlantic Treaty Organization codenames for the shoulder-held, anti-aircraft missiles 9K38 Igla (“Needle”) and 9K338 Igla, manufactured since Soviet times in the Russian town of Kolomna.

Two pilots died in the crash, which Ankara initially attributed to a technical malfunction.

On May 19, the Turkish military stated that the helicopter “was hit probably by an unidentified missile fired from the ground by terrorists,” the term used for the PKK.

 

[srgreene]

Turkish-Russian Relations Worsen As Turkish Helicopter Is Downed

It was the Stingers in Afghanistan that caused the Russians to leave, could this be payback for the Turks?

Interesting thought. There are a lot of SA-18's floating around the Middle East, so it would be difficult to say that Putin supplied them for this purpose, although I wouldn't put it past him. But both Moscow and Ankara have an interest in keeping their differences contained. What surprises me about the entire affair is that Erdogan seems to think that he can play Russia for the fool the same way he does the USA and Europe.

 

[JackLuis]

True and I'll bet the CIA got a few from the Libyan stockpile too.

However if the escalations continue, Turkey vs Russia, and precipitates into
a Russia-Nato Confrontation which includes the Ukraine, the Caucuses, and Iran too will not the US have to take on the Russians in aid of the Turks?

WWIII over Syria?

 

[Iceprincess12]

Yum. Turkey, russian dressing on a sandwich in butter. Genius!

 

[Hard_Rom]

True and I'll bet the CIA got a few from the Libyan stockpile too.

However if the escalations continue, Turkey vs Russia, and precipitates into
a Russia-Nato Confrontation which includes the Ukraine, the Caucuses, and Iran too will not the US have to take on the Russians in aid of the Turks?

WWIII over Syria?

WWIII over the age old sphere of influence. Russia vs. Turkey with Anglo and Euro allies sounds like the Crimean War. Been there done that. Same shit different century.