Turkey Shoots Down Russian Plane; Syrian Militiamen Shoot At Pilot as He's Parachuting to the Ground

Putin's using a lot of bellicose language.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Su-24 was hit by air-to-air missiles fired by Turkish F-16s while it was flying over Syrian territory.

But Turkish military officials said the plane was engaged after being warned that it was violating Turkish airspace.

Mr Putin described the incident as a "stab in the back" committed by "accomplices of terrorists".

Putin claims the plane was wholly in Syrian airpspace. Erdogan says Russia was looking to bomb its allies, the Turkmen (who are not Turks, actually).

There was no ISIS presence along that border area, but there were Turkmen there, Erdogan said. So anyone who bombs that area attacks "our brothers and sisters -- Turkmen," Erdogan said in Ankara. (Turkmen are a Turkic-speaking, traditionally nomadic people who live primarily in Central Asia, but a small minority of them can be found in the Middle East, primarily in northern Iraq, Iran and Turkey.)

Making this an even greater provocation for the easily-provoked Putin is the shooting of the pilots:

Not to upset anyone, and not to be alarmist, but when Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, no one predicted the chain reactions that would ensue and spark off a world war.

In the video below, the expert says that Russians were not there to bomb ISIS, but rather to support Assad's forces against non-ISIS rebels.

posted by Ace at 01:34 PM

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