Turkey-Russia tension: Russia putting missiles in Syria

The Turkmen minority in that part of northern Syria has strong ties to the Turkish government, which wants to afford them a degree of protection. Anyone who bombs that area attacks “our brothers and sisters — Turkmen,” Erdogan said.

 

Erdogan said Turkey had no intention of escalating the situation. But the fire in his words showed that the conflict in Syria has now churned up a new and alarming wave of international turbulence.

 

High stakes are at play in Syria, where the United States, Russia and a swarm of other global, regional and local forces are entangled in the civil war.

 

Turkey, a NATO member, said it had repeatedly warned the Russian warplane, shooting it down only after it ignored several warnings and violated Turkish airspace. Russia rejected that version of events, saying the Sukhoi Su-24 bomber was attacked 1 kilometer inside Syrian territory.

 

But Erdogan claimed parts of the downed plane had fallen inside Turkey, injuring two people.

 

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