"They can resort to the U.N. Security Council, that is their natural right, but this is not an honest step,” Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, referencing Baghdad’s move to appeal to a “higher” authority in an increasingly tense standoff with Ankara stemming from the latter’s decision to send several hundred troops and 25 tanks to Bashiqa (just northeast of Mosul) a week ago.
Earlier we reported that in response to the escalation in the Syria proxy war, where the latest development was yesterday's arrival of German warplanes and supporting troops in Turkey, Putin gave one simple command: "I order to act extremely tough. Any targets that threaten Russian forces or our infrastructure on the ground should be immediately destroyed."
“Turkey is acting recklessly and inexplicably,” Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN told the Security Council at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
Churkin was not, as you might have guessed, referring to Ankara’s brazen move to shoot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border late last month (although we’re quite sure that Moscow would classify that as “reckless and inexplicable” as well).
Guest Column From George Abert, Formerly Of Air Force Intelligence
Why did Turkey shoot down a Russian Air Force jet?