Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Helicopter

September 18, 2013 • 12:21PM

The Turkish air force shot down a Syrian helicopter it claims was 2 kilometers within Turkish territory, saying that the M-17 helicopter did not respond to warnings. Hours later a bomb exploded on the Syrian side of a Syria-Turkey border crossing. Both constitute obvious provocations aimed at derailing the U.S.-Russian agreements to peacefully disarm Syria's chemical weapons.

While the radar map released by the government and published in Today's Zaman shows that the helicopter was inside Turkey, it also shows the helicopter traveling directly at the Turkish border from a 90 degree angle. It then turns left well before the border and parallels the Turkish border but strays 2 kilometers into Turkish territory, and if it had stayed on that course, it would have soon exited back into Syria, due to the irregularity of the border.

Two kilometers is a short distance, especially for a helicopter flying over a very irregular border in mountainous territory. One question to ask is whether a warning was given, as the Turks claim. The decision to shoot the copter down was made by the ground commander, not the pilot. All of this looks like a Turkish provocation. Although it can be used as a gunship, the M-17 is a transport helicopter.

From Paris, where he was meeting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, along with the French, Saudi, and Qatari foreign ministers, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey conducted a "punitive action" by downing a Syrian helicopter, justifiable in terms of international justice and rules of engagement as the helicopter violated Turkish air space despite warnings. It should be noted that Davutoglu also met separately with the Saudis and Qataris.

In response, Syria's Army accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government of trying to escalate tensions along the border. "The hasty response from the Turkish side, especially as the aircraft was on its way back and was not charged with any combat missions, is proof of the true intentions of Erdogan's government toward Syria to increase tensions and escalate the situation on the border between the two countries," Syria's armed forces said in a statement reported by the state news agency, SANA.

This afternoon a car bomb exploded on the Syrian side of the main Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey, killing seven people and wounding as least 20 others. The Syrian side of this gate is controlled by the Islamist brigades several hundred meters from the Turkish side, according to media reports.