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Syria Shoots Down Turkish Jet Over
Mediterranean Sea
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According to Yahoo News, dated June 23rd, 2012: Syria shot down a Turkish warplane over the Mediterranean Sea, escalating tensions between neighbors already at odds over Syria’s violent repression of protests. “Our plane was brought down by Syria,” said a statement issued
early today by the office of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after he met for more than two hours
with senior ministers and military leaders. Operations to rescue the pilots are
ongoing and “after all details have been completely brought to light, Turkey
will define a final stance and decisively take the necessary steps,” it said. Syrian artillery shot down the Turkish jet as it flew low and
fast over its territorial waters 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from land before noon
Friday, and it splashed down 10 kilometers offshore, the state-run Syrian Arab
News Agency cited an unidentified military spokesman as saying. While Turkey and Syria were working together on the rescue
operation, the incident may add to tensions between the countries, which have
increased since Syria President Bashar al- Assad stepped up a crackdown against
opponents of his rule that has led to more than 10,000 deaths. Syria has
criticized Turkey for hosting meetings of the Syrian opposition. Infringements ‘Routine’ U.S. intelligence officers based in southern Turkey are working
to determine which Syrian opposition groups should receive arms across the
Turkish border, and Turkey is helping pay for the weapons along with Saudi Arabia
and Qatar, the New York Times reported June 21, citing U.S. and Arab
officials. Turkish President Abdullah Gul,
speaking to reporters in the central city of Kayseri, said it was “impossible
to cover over a thing like this,” the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
He said that it was routine for warplanes flying over the sea to cross briefly
into other countries’ territorial waters “without any ill intent,” adding that
it’s not yet clear where the plane was shot down. Gul said Turkey, which closed its embassy in Damascus in March,
has been in contact with Syria and confirmed that Syrian rescue teams have
joined in the search for the pilots. Erdogan, previously an Assad ally, has repeatedly called in
recent months for the Syrian leader to step down and end the bloodshed. Several
thousand Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey. In April, two people seeking to
flee into Turkey were wounded by gunfire across the border from Syrian forces,
prompting reports in Milliyet and other Turkish newspapers that Turkey’s army
was considering establishing a buffer zone inside Syria. Buffer Zone Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
hasn’t raised the issue of the downed plane at a NATO level, U.S. State
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters yesterday, according to the
department’s website. NATO rules allow members that suffer attacks to request
support from the organization. United Nations Syria envoy Kofi Annan,
speaking yesterday before the Turkish plane was reported missing, said that
talks are under way for a conference on Syria to be held in Geneva on June 30,
to which all potential contributors to a solution would be invited. Turkey’s state Anatolian news agency said that the warplane, an
F-4 fighter with two crewmen, had taken off at 10:30 a.m. yesterday from the
military airfield at Malatya in southwestern Turkey. According to the Turkish
Air Force website, the base is home to F-4E Phantom II fighter-bombers,
which were built from 1958 to 1981 by St. Louis-based McDonnell Douglas Corp.,
which in 1997 merged with Boeing Co. (BA), based in Chicago.
The Turkish military lost contact with the plane at 11:58 a.m.
local time yesterday and began search-and-rescue operations, according to a
statement on the armed forces website. To contact the reporters on this story: Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul at bharvey11@bloomberg.net; Ali Berat Meric in Ankara at americ@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net ------------------------------------ The Syrian Civil War, is an ongoing, violent internal conflict in Syria. It began on 26 January 2011 with public demonstrations as part of the wider Arab Spring and developed into a nationwide uprising. Protesters demanded the end to nearly five decades of Ba’ath Party rule, which was then and currently headed by President Bashar al-Assad. In June 12, 2012 U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous said in an interview with Reuters and one other reporter when asked if the Syrian crisis could now be characterized as a civil war. The climate in Syria is dry and hot, and winters are mild. Because of the country's elevation, snowfall does occasionally occur during winter. Petroleum in commercial quantities was first discovered in the northeast in 1956. The most important oil fields are: Suwaydiyah, Qaratshui, Rumayian, and Tayyem, near Dayr az–Zawr. The fields are a natural extension of the Iraqi fields of Mosul and Kirkuk. Petroleum became Syria's leading natural resource and chief export after 1974. Natural gas was discovered at the field of Jbessa in 1940. For history document showing, Wikipedia shows that The Roman Emperor Alexander Severus, who was emperor from 222 to 235, was Syrian. His cousin Elagabalus, who was emperor from 218 to 222, was also Syrian and his family held hereditary rights to the high priesthood of the sun god El-Gabal at Emesa (modern Homs) in Syria. Another Roman emperor who was a Syrian was Philip the Arab (Marcus Julius Philippus), emperor from 244 to 249. Syria is significant in the history of Christianity; Saulus of Tarsus, better known as the Apostle Paul, was converted on the Road to Damascus and emerged as a significant figure in the Christian Church at Antioch in ancient Syria, from which he left on many of his missionary journeys. After all, we all are beliving one God and we all are same human who created by Holy God and our God is expecting to help one another with no harming each other. Alhamdulillah or (الحمد لله) is an Arabic phrase meaning "Praise to God". It is used by Arabic-speakers of all religions, but more frequently by Muslims due to the centrality of this specific phrase within the texts of the Qur'an and the words of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is similar to the Hebrew word Hallelujah הַלְלוּיָהּ ('God be praised').
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