Turkey forces Syria plane to land, makes Russia see red

ISTANBUL: Moscow accused Ankara of endangering Russian lives on Thursday after Turkey forced a Syrian passenger plane to land and seized what it suspected was military equipment being ferried from Russia to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Damascussaid intercepting the Syrian Air plane was an act of piracy, further heightening tensions between the neighbours after Turkey's chief of staff warned Ankara would use greater force if shells from Syriacontinued to hit Turkish territory.

The grounding of the plane was another sign of Ankara's growing assertiveness over the crisis in Syria following almost a week of retaliation by its armed forces to gunfire and shelling spilling across the border.

"Turkey has crossed a new threshold," said former Turkish diplomat Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies think-tank.

"With the action they took last week the government is in the slightly more comfortable position of having shown it has the strength to retaliate."

Military jets escorted the Damascus-bound AirbusA-320, which was carrying around 30 passengers from Moscow, into Ankara airport late on Wednesday after Turkey received intelligence that it was carrying "non-civilian cargo". The Turkish foreign ministry said the plane had been given a chance to turn back towards Russia while still over the Black Sea, but the pilot chose not to do so.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Turkey-forces-Syria-plane-to-land-makes-Russia-see-red/articleshow/16776439.cms