World View: Turkey Intercepts Syrian Passenger Plane Traveling from Russia

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Turkey intercepts Syrian passenger plane traveling from Russia
• U.S. troops sent to Jordan for defense from Syria
• Greece’s austerity VAT tax hike has shut down restaurants
• 94% of Turkish people want Obama to win presidential election

Turkey intercepts Syrian passenger plane traveling from Russia

Syrian passenger plane forced to land in Ankara (Reuters)

Turkish F16 jets forced a Syrian passenger plane, traveling fromMoscow to Damascus over Turkey’s airspace, to land at Ankara airporton Wednesday on suspicion that it may be carrying weapons. As aresult of the inspections, Turkey found military communicationsequipment and missile parts presumably intended for Syria’s military.The military equipment was confiscated, and the plane was permitted tocontinue its trip to Damascus with all 37 passengers. Turkey has beenmassing troops and equipment on the border with Syria, where the twocountries have been exchanging fire for a week. On Wednesday morning,Turkey banned its own civilian airplanes from entering Syrianairspace, in order to prevent any reprisals for today’s action.Zaman (Istanbul)

U.S. troops sent to Jordan for defense from Syria

The NY Times, whose editorial policy is to harm the U.S. as much aspossible by revealing as many military and national security secretsas possible, is reporting that the U.S. military has secretly sent atask force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordanfor three purposes:

• Help Jordan’s armed forces handle the increasing flood of Syrian refugees.
• Defend against Syria’s chemical weapons if the government loses control of them.
• Be prepared to participate in a larger regional war, if it becomes necessary.

The possibility of setting up a militarized buffer zone between Syriaand Jordan is being discussed, but is not being planned at this time.Some 150,000 to 200,000 Syrian refugees have already crossed theborder into Jordan, and Jordan has said that they don’t have theresources to handle all of them. New York Times and Jerusalem Post

Greece’s austerity VAT tax hike has shut down restaurants

As part of its austerity requirements, Greece raised the value-addedtax (VAT) on food catering chains to 23%. During the 12-month period,income in the sector fell 40% from 3 billion euros to just 1.8 billioneuros, 4,000 restaurants have shut down, and about 30,000 employeeshave lost their jobs. The industry is asking that the VAT be loweredto 9%. Kathimerini

94% of Turkish people want Obama to win presidential election

President Obama

A recent survey has revealed that 94% of Turks are backing current USPresident Barack Obama against Republican presidential nominee MittRomney in the presidential race. The survey was conducted in 32countries. Obama was selected over Romney in most of the countriessurveyed. Iceland, Holland and Portugal were the countries with thehighest level of support for Obama. The only country where Romney wasranked higher was Israel. Zaman (Istanbul)

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Turkey, Syria, Russia, Jordan,Greece
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