This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com:
- Reports: Syria, under Russian guidance, interrogated and murdered Turkish pilots
- Turkey deploys armored vehicles to Syrian border
- Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party comes to New York and Montreal
- Europe-Greece bailout negotiations resume with ‘a sense of unease’
Reports: Syria, under Russian guidance, interrogated and murdered Turkish pilots
In June, after Syria allegedly shot down a Turkish warplane in amissile attack, Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan calledthe Syrian action an “act of war,” and invoked Article 4 of the Natocharter, which calls for consultations with other Nato members afterone Nato member has been attacked, since an attack on one membernation is considered to be an attack on all. At the time, Syria’spresident Bashar al-Assad apologized for the “unintentional” incident.
Leaked documents on Sunday now reveal that the two pilots in thedowned warplane were rescued by Syria, in coordination with theRussians. According to one document: “Two Turkish pilots were captured by the Syrian AirForce Intelligence after their jet was shot down in coordinationwith the Russian naval base in Tartus.”
According to the documents, the pilots were interrogated to determineTurkey’s actions in support of the Syrian opposition. Al-Assad hadthen wanted to turn them over to the Hizbollah terrorist groupin Lebanon, but the Russians stopped them:
Based on information and guidance from the Russianleadership comes a need to eliminate the two Turkish pilotsdetained by the Special Operations Unit in a natural way and theirbodies need to be returned to the crash site in internationalwaters.
After the pilots were murdered and dumped, the Russians told al-Assadto apologize to the Turks for downing the plane, and he did.
If this story is confirmed, then it will be much more an embarrassmentto Turkey than to Syria. The Syrians and the Russians don’t reallycare what the Turks think, because they know that Erdogan willtalk and shout, but there won’t be any action. For over 18 months,Erdogan and the rest of the West, as well as the United Nations, haveissued the same statement over and over: “The violence is terrible,and it MUST stop now.” This is particularly a problem for Erdogan,since Turkey is playing host to some 90,000 Syrians in refugee campsnear the Syrian border. Erdogan does not want to take military actionagainst Syria, but his political opposition is questioning hisleadership. Al-Arabiya and Haaretz and Hurriyet (Ankara)
Turkey deploys armored vehicles to Syrian border
On Friday, prior to the disclosure of the leaked documents, a Syrianmortar barrage landed in the downtown of a Turkish city on the borderwith Syria, damaging homes and workplaces. The barrage came frominside Syria, where Syrian troops and opposition forces have beenfighting.
Turkey has deployed dozens of armored vehicles to theregion near the Syrian border and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutogluthreatened military action: “I would like the public to know that if such breachestowards our borders continue we are reserving our rights and weare exercising our rights.”
If I’m not mistaken, Davutoglu has issued exactly the same statementdozens of times in the last 18 months. Zaman (Istanbul)
Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party comes to New York and Montreal
Greece’s neo-Nazi political party, Golden Dawn, which has received upto 20% support in polls this year amid violent austerity riots inAthens, has opened offices in New York City and Montreal. Theultra-nationalist party has been collecting food and medicine amongexpatriate Greek communities, promising to dispense the aid only toethnic Greeks in Greece. No aid will be given to immigrants, evenlegal immigrants. The party was criticized when it recently releaseda video showing a squad of Golden Dawn supporters and MPs ransackingan immigrant flea market in Greece. The party has already attracted152 members in Montreal.
Canadian leader Jimmy James says: “Illegal immigrants, they put knives to old ladies’throats. They’re taking over our homes. The police are doingnothing about it… Nobody wants to see blood spilled. Butthat’s what it’s starting to look like. It looks like it’s leadingto a civil war.”
National Post (Montreal) and Greek Reporter
Europe-Greece bailout negotiations resume with ‘a sense of unease’
After taking a “brief pause” for a week, the leaders of the EUCommission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) — are back in Athens to resume negotiations overthe terms of the next bailout loan for Greece. Greece must reduce itsbudget deficit by 13.5 billion euros next year in order to qualify forthe 31.5 billion euro bailout loan that it needs to avoid bankruptcynext month. With those kinds of numbers, it’s not surprising thatGreek officials are feeling “a sense of unease” over the intentions ofthe Troika, and whether they plan to approve the bailout payment evenif Greece can’t meet all of its austerity commitments. Kathimerini
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