... patriotic opinion at home. A show of force might also have been a smart geopolitical move. Many Western experts feared that a Russian retaliation against Turkey might put American and European leaders in a quandary and even lead to the
unraveling of NATO
if the Western powers did not give Turkey their full support.
EPA / MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV
Ilshat Saetov:
From Downed Plane to the Greater Middle East:
Theories of What Happened in Turkey
Some American pundits' calls for unconditional support bring to ...
... than meets the eye. On the one hand, the military, diplomatic and inter-state tensions seem at first sight to involve two actors – Moscow and Ankara. On the other hand, it is clear that Turkey is perceived under these circumstances as a member of NATO and, in the opinion of many Russian politicians, part of the political games of the United States and not independent international player. President Putin’s description of the actions of the Turkish Air Force as “a stab in the back” ...
... over Syria when a Turkish F-16 shot down a Russian Su-24 got the whole world talking about how close we came to an all-out conflict in the Middle East. Some commentators have suggested that today we are closer to an open conflict between Russia and NATO than ever before since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Quite surprisingly while Russia watchers have insisted that if a conflict between the alliance and Moscow is to erupt it will take place in Eastern Europe, yet now it’s the Middle East ...
