Turkey calls NATO meeting, Russia sends ships to Syria after Syrian airstrike kills 33 Turkish troops.

[The Romulan Republic]

https://cbc.ca/news/world/russia-turkey ... -1.5479275

Russia on Friday said it was sending two warships armed with cruise missiles to waters off the Syrian coast and blamed Ankara for the deaths of 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria's Idlib region the previous day.

The killing of the Turkish soldiers on Thursday and the wounding of 32 others, announced by the governor in Turkey's Hatay province bordering Syria, raised the Turkish military death toll in the region to 54 this month.

Russia's Defence Ministry was cited by the RIA news agency on Friday as saying that the Turkish troops had been hit by artillery fire from Syrian government forces who were trying to repel an offensive by rebel forces.

It was quoted as saying that Ankara had failed to notify Moscow of the presence of Turkish troops in the area hit by shelling despite being in regular communication with the Russian military.

The Turkish troops had been deployed directly alongside anti-government rebels, the ministry was cited as saying. But according to information provided by Turkey there were no Turkish troops in the area and Russia said that Turkish forces "shouldn't have been there."

Russian war planes did not carry out any airstrikes in the area at the time of the incident and Moscow did everything it could to help once it learnt of the Turkish troop presence, the ministry was cited as saying.

That included ensuring Syrian forces stopped shelling to allow Turkey to evacuate its dead and wounded.

Meanwhile, two Russian frigates carrying cruise missiles have been deployed to Syria, Russian navy officials said. Admiral Makarov and Admiral Grigorovich of the Black Sea Fleet are currently en route to the Syrian coast with Kalibr cruise missiles on board. Both warships previously took part in Russia's offensive in Syria.

NATO ambassadors meeting at Turkey's request
NATO ambassadors are holding consultations about developments in Syria under Article 4 of the alliance's treaty at Turkey's request. NATO said Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg would hold a news conference at around 5:45 a.m. ET.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into Syria and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that Ankara will launch a full-scale offensive to repel Syrian forces unless they pull back from Turkish observation posts in the region.

Turkey says it's helped rebel forces take back key Syrian town
Though trying to coordinate their efforts on Syria, Russia backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs rebel forces opposing Assad.

Responding to Thursday's killings, a senior Turkish official said on Friday that Ankara would no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe. Turkey blamed an air strike by Syrian government forces for the deaths.

So, after flirting with ISIS, flirting with Russia, and then getting Trump to sign off on his invasion of Kurdish-held Syria thanks to Trump's dictator fetish, Erdogan goes running back to NATO for help, raising the spectre of war between NATO and Russia, because he found he bit off more than he can chew.

Seriously, the first thing the next administration should do on foreign policy is push to have Turkey expelled from NATO. They're more a liability than an asset, as far as I can say, even leaving aside the dubious morality of being allied to dictators engaged in wars of aggression.

[Knife]

Fuck Turkey, they made their bed, make them lay in it.

[MKSheppard]

They can use their S-400 that they bought (or even their HAWKs) to shoot down low flying Su-24s.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Turkey struck back:
Turkey kills over 300 Syria regime troops in retaliation to attack.

Turkey has reportedly killed at least 309 Syrian regime soldiers and destroyed dozens of military vehicles and defence systems in retaliation for the regime’s offensive which killed 33 Turkish soldiers last night.

According to Turkey’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar today, they destroyed five regime military helicopters, two air defence systems (the SA-17 and SA-22), 23 tanks and 23 howitzer artillery weapons, as well as “neutralising” the 309 regime troops.

The revelation of Turkey’s devastating retaliation comes after it was announced by the Communications Director Fahrettin Altun early this morning that Turkey had put under fire all identified and known targets of the regime’s military in Idlib province, including their land and air vehicles.

If these numbers are accurate and not exaggerations by Turkey, there's something poetic about inflicting almost ten times as many casualties in retaliation.

In related news:
Thousands head for Greek border as Turkey's President Erdogan says 'we will not close the gates'.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared his country's borders with Europe are open, as thousands of migrants and refugees gathered at the frontier with Greece.

It comes after 33 Turkish troops were killed in an air strike on Thursday from Russian-backed Syrian forces.

The presidents of Turkey and Russia are in talks to defuse tensions following the attack.

The move by Turkey to open its border was seen in Greece as a deliberate attempt to pressure European countries - with tensions ratcheted up between Turkey and Syria.

In essence, Turkey is making good on its threat to let refugees flood into Europe. However, because the Greek and Bulgarian sides of the border are still closed, those refugees are not going anywhere yet. The borders of the three countries actually converge not far from the Turkish city of Edirne.

[Eulogy]

In essence, Turkey is making good on its threat to let refugees flood into Europe. However, because the Greek and Bulgarian sides of the border are still closed, those refugees are not going anywhere yet.

So, uh, how is this supposed to get them back into NATO's good graces again?

[madd0ct0r]

In essence, Turkey is making good on its threat to let refugees flood into Europe. However, because the Greek and Bulgarian sides of the border are still closed, those refugees are not going anywhere yet.

So, uh, how is this supposed to get them back into NATO's good graces again?

It's a wedge issue that seperates Europe into different blocks. Greece and Italy feel they are already doing too much. The northern countries feel guilty about the camps but have little will to help. They have the armed forces that would get dragged in if Syria implodes again.
Trump and Boris and that current Italian twonk all benefit from televised images of Muslim crowds of refugees threatening to overwhelm borders, but Trump is the one with an election and deciding voice in NATO.