First, last Wednesday, Turkey intercepted a Syrian civilian jet [6]suspected of carrying Russian weapons to Syria, forcing it to land in Turkey. The jet subsequently continued on its trip following stern denials from both Damascus and Moscow, and after Turkey found no evidence of its claim. Then yesterday, Syria promptly retaliated against this overt and unjustified aggression by banning all Turkish aircraft from crossing its airspace. Now, moments ago, Turkey retaliated to an act of retaliation against its own initial provocation, by barring all Syrian flights above its own airspace, and in the process preventing virtually all local airborne traffic from taking place. In other words: more mindless escalation which usually ends in a very unfortunate way.
What the Syria-Turkey border looks like:
[7]
More from Reuters:
Turkey banned all Syrian aircraft from its air space on Sunday, days after intercepting a Syrian airliner carrying what it said were Russian-made munitions for the Syrian army.
Asked if Syrian aircraft were now banned from Turkish air space, a Foreign Ministry official said: "Yes, civilian aircraft. Military aircraft were de facto banned way before."
Syria said on Saturday that it was banning Turkish civilian flights over its territory.
We eagerly await to learn what Syria's retaliation to this retaliaton to its retaliation to etc, etc, etc, will be, and how long it takes until either the national interest of the "western world" or the Russia-China axis is impaired, and how they react. Beacuse in the end, that's what it's all about.