The Russian jet and the Turkish presidency

Yesterday, at around 9 a.m. in the morning, Turkey downed a Russian fighter jet right at the Syrian border. According to the Turkish Chief of Staff, the plane had violated Turkish air space "for five minutes, despite being warned 10 times." Russia said there was no violation and that Turkey had downed the plane while it was in Syrian airspace. 

I am no expert on the issue and have no secret information to confirm any of the claims. But I will just give you an objective thought: Had the Russian jet not violated Turkish airspace, Ankara would not have put itself into this trouble. Despite all its tough rhetoric about Syria since the early stages of the civil war, the Turkish government has been very careful about not getting itself involved in any military adventure. It has avoided a military confrontation even with the bloody regime of Bashar, a much less powerful force then Russia. So, the idea of Turkey initiating an escalation with Russia, a former world superpower, is just not reasonable. 

This does not mean that this incident will not cause bitterness between the two capitals. The response by Russian President Vladimir Putin was very harsh. He blamed Turkey for "supporting terrorists" and stabbing Russia, who is supposedly fighting these terrorists, "in the back." But this was pure demagogy. Turkey does not support those who are called "terrorists" by the whole world, i.e., the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). And Russia's fight is less against those terrorists but more against the rebels that the West also supports. 

In fact, in the past few days, the Russian Air Force in Syria was busy bombing an armed Syrian group that has nothing to do with ISIL: The Turkmen fighters that defend Jabal Turkman, or "the Turkmen Mountain,"...