Could the downing of a Turkish jet by Syrian anti-air defenses lead to Article Five invocation?

Could the downing of a Turkish jet by Syrian anti-air defenses lead to Article Five invocation?



The West has tried to push several incidents to justify a foreign intervention in Syria, with the most recent being the alleged Houla massacre which quickly fell apart thanks in part to the BBC using an image from Iraq in an attempt to make readers emotionally react to the incident.

Thankfully, even mainstream media outlets around the world have begun to take notice (see below video) of the lies and misrepresentations that have been the hallmark of the tragic situation in Syria for well over a year now.



Also noteworthy have been the attempts to drudge up Iraq-style chemical weapons claims – which are devoid of any factual basis and nothing but pure, unadulterated propaganda – in order to build popular support for an attack on Syria.

It seems that none of these attempts have worked, but the latest incident might provide the justification that the West has been searching for.

Previously I wrote about how Turkey could invoke Article Five of the North Atlantic Treaty, pulling all of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into a full-scale attack on Syria.



Thankfully, that never materialized. However, the statements made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding the downing of a Turkish fighter jet might do just that.

Erdogan stated that the Turkish fighter jet which was reported missing in the region around the Eastern Mediterranean early Friday was actually shot down by Syria, which was later confirmed by Syrian state media outlet SANA according to The Hindu.

Prime Minister Erdogan made this formal allegation after conducting a joint search and rescue operation with Syria.

“It has been understood that our plane has been struck down by Syria,” Prime Minister Erdogan claimed in a written statement issued after an emergency meeting was held with the top figures of the military and government.

“Turkey will announce its final position and take necessary steps with determination after the incident is entirely clarified,” Erdogan further stated without clarifying on any retaliatory measures Turkey might take.

According to a Turkish military statement issued early Friday, the fighter jet lost radio contact with its base somewhere over the Eastern Mediterranean near the Syrian city of Latakia.

SANA reported that the military identified an “unidentified aerial target” flying at high speed and low altitude.

“The Syrian anti-air defenses counteracted with anti-aircraft artillery, hitting it directly,” SANA said. “The target turned out to be a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian airspace and was dealt with according to laws observed in such cases.”

In other words, the Turkish fighter jet breached sovereign Syrian airspace and they reacted like any country under siege would.

With the two pilots of the Turkish jet still missing, the official statement from Turkey stated that they “will determinedly take necessary steps” in response to the Syrian action.

According to The Hindu, some Turkish television reports indicated that the plane was on a reconnaissance flight, while the Turkish military has not provided any details on the jet’s mission.

While Syrian vessels chose to help in the search and rescue mission, they did state that the jet violated the airspace above their territorial waters and that they fired upon the jet before realizing it was Turkish.

Laughably, one commentator, Ilter Turan, a professor of political science at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, claimed that the action was clearly “hostile” even if the jet actually violated Syrian airspace.

“They could have either sent their planes to confront it or force it to land, it is a hostile act by any standard,” Turan claimed.

However, this ignores the fact that Syria feels, understandably I might add, that they might be attacked at any time by surrounding nations or Western forces.

Turan predicted – accurately, in my opinion – that Syria would actually avoid escalating tensions with Turkey.

This is likely since Turkey could quite easily invoke Article Five and thus bring the wrath of NATO, which has had an itchy trigger finger since the destruction of Libya, upon the entire nation of Syria.

Only time will tell but hopefully we will not see any more bloodshed and yet another brutal NATO invasion in the Middle East, or anywhere for that matter.