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Syria-bound plane: Turkey at it again

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  • Syria-bound plane: Turkey at it again

    Voice of Russia
    Oct 15 2012


    Syria-bound plane: Turkey at it again

    Artyom Kobzev


    All Syria-bound planes are now under Turkey's special control. An
    Armenian plane carrying aid to the Syrian city of Aleppo was force
    landed and searched Monday. The plane was allowed to continue its
    flight after the search in the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum.
    Armenia's Foreign Ministry claimed that the landing was planned and
    Armenia had known the plane would be searched in line with a
    previously reached agreement.
    That was a discriminative requirement but, Yerevan had nothing but to
    agree, says Edgar Vardanyan, expert of the Armenian Center for
    Strategic and National Research.

    "There are lots of Armenians in Syria - a large community and we can't
    ignore them. Many of them have fled to Armenia and we assist them but
    we also want those who stayed in Syria to get aid."

    The situation followed the last Wednesday incident when Turkey forced
    down a Syrian airliner from Moscow, and said it had found Russian
    munitions on board destined for Syria's armed forces. This was not
    confirmed but Turkey banned all Syrian aircraft from its airspace.

    Earlier, Turkey's parliament approved a mandate on cross-border
    military operations in Syria. Sergey Demidenko, expert in Oriental
    Studies, doesn't find a war between the countries that probable.

    "Turkey is not ready for a war like this either politically,
    ideological or economically. Its army is stronger than Syria's but if
    Turkey gets involved in a protracted conflict it would ruin economic
    growth and high living standards of people which were pledged by the
    National Justice and Development Party. The ruling party which took
    the helm in 2002did a lot since then and a bloody conflict could ruin
    it all."

    The Syrian plane travelling from Moscow had no munitions on board, it
    was carrying radar equipment, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
    stated after the incident and added that Syria is not under any
    sanctions.

    However, the Foreign Ministry claimed that the incident will not dim
    bilateral relations.

    http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_10_15/Syria-bound-plane-Turkey-at-it-again/

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