Range of Frustrations Reached Boil as Turkey Shot Down Russian Jet

[HuckleB]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/26/world/europe/turkey-russia-fighter-jet.html?_r=0

"...

... analysts said Mr. Erdogan had several more nuanced reasons to allow Turkish pilots to open fire. These include his frustration with Russia over a range of issues even beyond Syria, the Gordian knot of figuring out what to do with Syria itself and Turkey’s strong ethnic ties to the Turkmen villages Russia has been bombing lately in the area of the crash.

Turkey has been quietly seething ever since Russia began military operations against Syrian rebels two months ago, wrecking Ankara’s policy of ousting the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The Turks were forced to downgrade their ambitions from the ouster of Mr. Assad to simply maintaining a seat at the negotiating table when the time comes, said Soner Cagaptay, a Turkish analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a nonpartisan research group.

...

The bombing was creating political problems for Mr. Erdogan, Mr. Cagaptay said. “In the days leading up to the incident, many newspapers, especially the pro-government publications, were running headlines highlighting the suffering of the Turkmens, who are closely related to Anatolian Turks,” he said. “I think the government felt that, in terms of domestic politics, it had to do something to ease some of this pressure that had resulted from the Russian bombardment against Turkmens in northern Syria.”

...

Complicating matters further, Turkey and Syria have a longstanding border dispute in exactly the area where the Russian plane, a Sukhoi Su-24, was shot down, and Russia has sometimes voiced support for Syria’s claim. It is a narrow strip of territory, the Hatay Province of Turkey, that runs south along the Mediterranean Sea, deep into Syria.

..."


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The most concise piece covering most of the pieces of the puzzle I've seen. A good read.

[KamaAina]

1. Boil? Turkey?

No, silly. You roast or fry turkey, not boil it!

[Xolodno]

4. No. No. No. You smoke it.

See argument here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027379255

You'll note, a lot of gobley gook arguments and people beating the stuffing out of each other in the thread.

You can yam through the thread and see some of the pie in the sky posts.

[KamaAina]

5. Can you vape it instead?

[Xolodno]

7. Wife has the food network on....

....Would you believe some people steam it?

[KamaAina]

10. If they're in Meriden, Conn., yes

Ted's in Meriden, midway between New Haven and Hartford, is the home of the steamed hamburger. Srsly.

[w0nderer]

2. K & R N/T

[HuckleB]

3. Thanks.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. I'm gonna agree that while important, these headlines are simply too confusing this week.

[HuckleB]

8. I can't say I disagree with that!

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. let's not forget that the Russians too are Western imperialists in this mix

No doubt, we need some Western imperialists to knock the shit out of ISIS, but anyone who sees the Russians as anything but interlopers with their own selfish agenda is a stooge or a fool.

In any case, dollars to donuts Putin had a Turkey plane shootdown as a possible scenario gamed out, and perhaps even preferred it.