Turkey at odds with Moscow after grounding Russia-Syria flight
Turkey, already on the brink of a conflict with Syria, may now be facing tensions with Moscow after grounding a flight from Russia on suspicion that it was carrying weapons for the Syrian regime
People gather atop the aircraft steps adjacent to a Syrian passenger plane that was forced by Turkish jets to land at Esenboga airport in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012.
Burhan Ozbilici/AP
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Latin America Editor
Whitney Eulich is the Monitor's Latin America editor, overseeing regional coverage for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She also curates the Latin America Monitor Blog.
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Turkey forced a Damascus-bound passenger plane suspected of ferrying Russian weapons to Syria to land at an Ankara airport yesterday, just hours after a Turkish military commander said Turkey would respond more strongly to Syrian bombardments in its territory.
The Syrian-owned Airbus A-320 passenger plane traveling from Moscow to Damascus and carrying 30 passengers was grounded last night based on intelligence that it was shuttling “non-civilian cargo,” reports Reuters.
Syria accused Turkey of “air piracy” following the incident, Lebanon’s al-Manar TV quoted Syrian Transport Minister Mahoumd Said as saying, according to a separate Reuters report. The station quotes Mr. Said as saying that the landing “contradicts civil aviation treaties."
After a five-hour inspection and confiscation of cargo, Turkey allowed the plane to continue on to Syria, reports Russian news agency RIA Novosti. There have been varying accounts of what Turkey may have found on board, but no definitive statement from Turkish officials on what, if anything, they found.
"Some Turkish media reports stated that there were parts for radio stations used for military purposes, while NTV television channel said there was an object that could be a part of a missile," RIA Novosti reports.
The episode has escalated already heightened tensions between Turkey and Syria, which have been exchanging sporadic fire across their 566-mile shared border since last week, when a Syrian mortar killed five people in Turkey after several days of shelling. It is unclear if the original cross-border violence was intended or the result of misaimed shots.
The grounding of the aircraft also strains the relationship between Turkey and Russia. Moscow has been one of the few countries to stand by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the course of the 19-month conflict, and has used its veto power on the United Nations Security Council to block multiple resolutions that would have allowed stronger action against the regime, including laying the groundwork for international intervention.
The Financial Times reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin postponed a scheduled trip to Turkey next week, which could have been an opportunity for Turkey to persuade Russia to temper its support for the Assad regime.
According to the Washington Post, a Russian arms exporting agency source informed Interfax news agency that the passenger plane was not carrying Russian military equipment or weapons.
“If it had been necessary to ship any military hardware or weapons to Syria, this would have been done through the established procedure rather than in an illegal way, not to mention using a civilian aircraft,” the official told Interfax. Because Russia hasn’t suspended its military-technological cooperation with Syria, there is no reason to avoid using official channels, the source noted.
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