The Russian Su-24 downed by Turkish forces
Tensions in the Middle East ratcheted up dangerously Wednesday, a day after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane, with the Turkish President accusing Russia of deceit and Russia announcing it would deploy anti-aircraft missiles to Syria.
Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu said on his ministry’s Twitter feed that the country would deploy S-400 defence missile systems to its Hmeymim airbase near Latakia, on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
The missiles have a range of 250 kilometres, according to the missilethreat.com website — or 155 miles. The Turkish border is less than 30 miles away.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian TV on Wednesday that Russia has “serious doubts” that Turkey’s downing of its warplane Tuesday was “an unpremeditated act.”
“It looks very much like a planned provocation,” Lavrov said.
For his part, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned what he said was the violation of Turkish airspace by Russian warplanes, calling the incident an infringement of his country’s sovereignty.
He charged Russia with propping up the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad — a regime he said was inflicting terrorism on its own people. His remarks came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Turkey of being “the terrorists’ accomplices” for shooting down a plane he claimed was on an anti-terrorism mission. Erdogan disputed that claim in a speech Wednesday.
“There is no Daesh” in the area where the Russian planes were flying, Erdogan said, using another name for ISIS. “Do not deceive us! We know the locations of Daesh.”
