WAR ON ISIS - Turkey vs Russia

"How the Turkey-Russia conflict complicates anti-Islamic State efforts" PBS NewsHour 11/24/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The air war over Syria escalated when a Russian warplane was shot down by Turkey.  To discuss how the incident could affect the fight against the Islamic State, Judy Woodruff speaks to Angela Stent, author of “The Limits of Partnership," and Nicholas Burns of Harvard University.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  We return now to the fight against the Islamic State group and how those efforts might be hindered by Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane.

I’m joined by Nicholas Burns, a career diplomat and former U.S. ambassador to NATO.  He’s now a professor at Harvard University.  And Angela Stent, author of “The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the 21st Century.”  She’s a senior fellow at the Transatlantic Academy.

And we welcome you both.

So, just based on what we know, Angela Stent, who do we think was at fault here?  Was it the Turks for allegedly violating Russian airspace or was it the Russians for — I’m sorry — the Russians for going into Turkish airspace, or the other way around?

ANGELA STENT, Author, “The Limits of Partnership”:  Well, apparently, the Russians were only in Turkish airspace for less than a minute.

But this isn’t the first time apparently that Russian planes have violated Turkish airspace.  The Turks claim that they gave the Russians 10 warnings.  The Russians claim that that’s not true.  But it does appear that they were briefly in Turkish airspace.  The question is, could this have been de-escalated?  Could the Turks maybe have offered to escort them out of Turkish airspace?

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Well, Nicholas Burns, if they were in Turkish — over Turkish airspace, even for less than half-a-minute, was that something that warranted being shot down by the Turkish military?

NICHOLAS BURNS, Harvard University:  Well, the history and circumstances are important here.

They did violate Turkish airspace.  And, as President Obama said, every country has a right, Turkey has a right to defend that airspace.  But the Russians have violated Turkish airspace on several occasions over the last two months.  Russian drones have gone across the border.

And the Turks have warned the Russians both publicly and privately.  The Russians have also been bombing Syrian Turkmen, ethnic Turkmen villages very close to that border, and the Turks warned the Russians about that.  It seems to be the last straw for the Turks.

There are some people who are saying the Turks should have acted differently, as Angela said, that they might have escorted the fighters out, but there was fair warning to the Russians.  And as a NATO ally, it’s very important that the United States defend this right that every country’s border are sacrosanct.

And what the Russians did is clearly illegal under International Law.

REMINDER:  Putin does not care about International Law, only Russian power.  Also note that the "10 warnings" do not refer to this latest incident, it was reference to 10 intrusions.