Turkey shoots down Syrian plane it says violated air space ISTANBUL, March 23 (Reuters) - Turkish armed forces shot down a Syrian plane on Sunday that Ankara said had crossed into its air space in an area where Syrian rebels have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces for control of a border crossing. "A Syrian plane violated our airspace," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told an election rally in northwest Turkey. "Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? Because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this will be hard." Syria condemned what it called a "blatant aggression" and said the jet was pursuing rebel fighters inside Syria. It said the pilot had managed to eject before the plane crashed. The Turkish general staff said one of its control centres detected two Syrian MIG-23s around 1 pm (1100 GMT) and warned them four times after they came close to the Turkish border. One plane entered Turkish airspace at Yayladagi, east of the Kasab border crossing, it said. A Turkish F-16 fired a rocket at the Syrian jet and it crashed around 1,200 metres (1,300 yards) inside Syrian territory. Amateur video released by rebel fighters showed smoke rising from wooded hills in the border area where they said the plane had come down. The rebels have been fighting since Friday for control of the Kasab crossing, one of several counter-offensives since they retreated this week from a crusader castle near the Lebanese frontier and town on a vital cross-border supply route. State television said Hilal al-Assad, a cousin of the president and local leader of the National Defence Force militia which has been supporting the army's efforts to crush the rebellion, was killed near Kasab on Sunday. Assad's soldiers, backed by Iran and Shi'ite forces from Iraq and Lebanon's Hezbollah, have been pushing rebels back in the centre of the country around Damascus and Homs, but have only a minimal presence in most of north and eastern Syria. full article
Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if this "warplane" being shot down by the Turkish military is about domestic politics more than "border integrity".
It's a strange situation The Mig-23 shot down is old, but a very capable aircraft -- odd indeed Syria would put themselves in a position for this to happen.
At 500 Mph, Syrian airspace is pretty tight. You could slip into Turkey just trying to turn. Taking the opportunity to shoot the plane down is a political message to the Syrians that they can't project power onto the rebel factions across the border and that they will continue to face a Western (Turkish) supported opposition, promoting a political solution. It can also be a veiled threat at Russia over belligerence in the region, Syria and The Ukraine i.e. a legal way to shoot at something Russian. Also, it's payback for 2012 http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/22/world/meast/turkey-plane/
I would guess it's both. Turkey's PM needs to show strength, especially since Turkey's economy is flailing, there are corruption accusations, and he is facing serious political opposition.
A turkey shot down by the Syrian...that's what I thought had happened when I first saw the thread title.
