A plethora of developments over the past hours.
1. A Turkish "aid convoy" has been hit inside Syria by "allegedly" Russian fighters. Seven died and trucks are totaled. The "aid" convoy belonged to IHH, a known Islamist relief organization that have been accused of (especially by Germany) providing weapons to Islamist armed groups.
Turkey is reported to deliver weapons in ambulances as well as civilian trucks, under the guise of humanitarian relief.
2. Russian parliament is about to pass a resolution to criminalize the denial of the Armenian Genocide.
3. Syrian FM says, "Turkey violated Syrian sovereignty by attacking Su-24 in its airspace." I guess Russia's air defence systems in Syria will be on high alert in the event of a violation of the Syrian airspace by Turkish jets.
4. PYD leader Salih Muslim Muhammad said "Syrian Kurds ready to co-op with Russia against terrorism."
5. The surviving SU 24s pilot spoke. The navigator of the Russian Su-24 shot down by a Turkish fighter jet on Tuesday insists that his plane did not cross into Turkey’s airspace, and says he was given no visual or radio warning before being fired at.
“
It’s impossible that we violated their airspace even for a second,” Konstantin Murakhtin told RT and other Russian media. “
We were flying at an altitude of 6,000 meters in completely clear weather, and I had total control of our flight path throughout.”
As well as denying Ankara’s assertions that the plane was in Turkey’s airspace, Murakhtin, who says he knows the mission area
"like the back of my hand," also refuted Turkish officials’ claims that the pilots were warned repeatedly.
“
In actual fact, there were no warnings at all. Neither through the radio, nor visually, so we did not at any point adjust our course. You need to understand the difference in speed between a tactical bomber like a Su-24, and that of the F16. If they wanted to warn us, they could have sat on our wing,” said Murakhtin, who is currently recuperating at Russia’s airbase in Latakia, northern Syria.
“
As it was, the missile hit the back of our plane out of nowhere. We didn’t even have time to make an evasive maneuver.”
Below is the picture of Syrian & Russian Commando's returning after freeing the 2nd Russian Pilot.
6. FM Lavrov stated earlier: "by shooting down a Russian plane on a counter-terrorist mission of the Russian Aerospace Force in Syria, and one that did not violate Turkey’s airspace, the Turkish government has in effect sided with ISIS."
"…Turkey’s actions appear premeditated, planned, and undertaken with a specific objective."
7. Russian air attacks get heaver, pounding on AQ and JN-affiliated terrorists in areas described as Turkmen by Turkey. "Russian warplanes carried out heavy raids in Syria's northern Latakia province on Wednesday, a day after Turkey downed one of Moscow's jets in the area, a monitoring group said.
Warplanes believed to be Russian also carried out strikes near the Turkish border in northern Aleppo province....
"Russian warplanes have since last night been carrying out heavy air strikes on the Jabal Akrad and Jabal Turkman regions" in the north of Latakia province, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
listen); born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and statesman, who served asPresident of Romania from 1989 until 1996, and from 2000 until 2004. From 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 until his retirement in 2008, Iliescu was a senator for the Social Democratic Party (PSD), whose honorary president he remains.
