Turkey says Syrian
plane carried Russian munitions
By Nick Tattersall , ISTANBUL
| Thu Oct 11, 2012
(Reuters) - Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday a Syrian passenger plane forced
to land in Ankara was carrying Russian-made munitions destined
for Syria's defense ministry, ratcheting up tensions with his country's
war-torn neighbor.
Damascus said the
plane was carrying legitimate cargo and described Turkey's actions as an act of
"air piracy", while Moscow accused Ankara of endangering the
lives of Russian passengers when it intercepted the jet late on Wednesday.
Syrian Air chief
Ghaida Abdulatif told reporters in Damascus the plane was carrying civilian
electrical equipment.
Turkey has become one
of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's harshest critics during an 18-month-old
uprising that has killed some 30,000 people, providing sanctuary for rebel
officers and pushing for a foreign-protected safe zone inside Syria.
Russia has stood
behind Assad and an arms industry source said Moscow had not stopped its arms
exports to Damascus.
Military jets escorted
the Airbus A-320, which was carrying
around 30 passengers, into Ankara airport after Turkey received an intelligence
tip-off. The Turkish foreign ministry said the plane had been given a chance
to turn back towards Russia while still over the Black Sea, but the pilot
chose not to do so.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin had been expected to visit Turkey at the start of next week but
Turkish officials said hours before the plane was grounded that Russia had
requested the visit be postponed, citing his heavy work schedule.
Turkey said it would stop more Syrian civilian
aircraft using its airspace if necessary and instructed Turkish
passenger planes to avoid Syrian airspace, saying it was no longer safe.
Turkish Chief of Staff
General Necdet Ozel said on Wednesday his troops would respond "with
greater force" if the shelling continued and parliament last week
authorized the deployment of troops outside Turkish territory.
Such approval has in
the past been used for Turkish strikes against Kurdish militant bases in
northern Iraq, where Turkey's last major incursion was in early 2008, when it
sent 10,000 troops backed by air power over the border.
Some 25 fighter planes
were sent to a military base in the southern city of Diyarbakir, around 100 km
from the Syrian border, on Monday, the Dogan news agency said. Turkey has
scrambled its F-16s to the Syrian border before, although air strikes inside
Syria would be a major escalation.
Turkey has repeatedly
made clear that beyond like-for-like retaliation it has no appetite for
unilateral intervention in Syria. Such a move would be fraught with risks, as
the row with Moscow over the grounded plane highlights.
Turkey relies on
Russia, which has blocked
tougher U.N. resolutions against Damascus, both for its domestic energy
needs and to help it realize its greater ambitions as a hub for energy supplies
to Europe.
Many Turks see Russia
as harboring sympathy towards the militant Kurdish Workers Party (PKK),
which has stepped up violence in southeast Turkey in recent months. Turkish
officials believe Syria and Iran have also been backing the group.
"We get 80
percent of our natural gas from Iran and Russia. Already the PKK card is being
used by Iran against Turkey ... so the risks for Turkey of being involved in
even a limited operation are huge," Ulgen said.
Turkey diverts Syrian plane to Ankara
Ahmet Davutoglu, the
Turkish foreign minister, said that the plane was forced to land because of
information that it may be carrying "non-civilian cargo".
Interviewed by TRT in
Athens, Davutoglu said Turkey was within its rights under international law
to investigate civilian planes suspected to be carrying military
materials.
Turkish F16s intercept
Syrian civilian flight from Moscow to Damascus
10 October, 2012
Turkish F-16 fighter
jets forced a Syrian Air passenger plane to land in Ankara over suspicions that
it was carrying "non-civilian" cargo. The Damascus-bound plane, en
route from Moscow, has departed after a nine-hour inspection.
The aircraft, which belongs
to Syrian Air, was intercepted as
it entered Turkish airspace on its way from Moscow by F-16 jets
and forced to land at the capital's Esenboga Airport. The Turkish authorities
said that it detained the plane on the basis they suspected it to be carrying "certain equipment in breach of
civil aviation rules."
Russian diplomats who
arrived at the airport were not allowed access to the passengers in violation of the 1963 Vienna
Convention on Consular Relations.
“We are troubled that
the lives of the passengers aboard the plane, including 17 Russian citizens were put at
risk by this inappropriate act. Turkey did not inform Russia
that Russian citizens were among those detained on the plane. We found
this out through the press,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich
said.
The director of
Syria's civil aviation agency told RT that the interception of the civilian
plane and the search of its cargo compartment were a breach
of the Convention on International Civil
Aviation. She added that Turkey’s actions had endangered the lives of
those on board the passenger plane.
'Turkey violated
Convention on International Civil Aviation' – airline chief to RT
11 October, 2012,
the Convention on
International Civil Aviation was violated
We shall file a
complaint with the International Civil Aviation Organization, with the Arab
Civil Aviation Commission, with all the international humanitarian
organizations, objecting to the inhuman measures taken against the passengers
and our plane
