SyriaTurkey intercepts a Syrian plane carrying arms from Russia

Tensions between Turkey and Syria continue to escalate, and yesterday Turkish planes forced a Syrian Airbus A320 passenger plane en route from Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara after Turkish intelligence found that the plane was carrying armament and military equipment Russia was sending the besieged Assad regime.

Turkish fighter planes escorted the Syrian plane, with about thirty passengers on board, into the airport in Ankara, where the military equipment was seized by the Turkish military before the plane was allowed to continue to Damascus.

“We are determined to control weapons transfers to a regime that carries out such brutal massacres against civilians. It is unacceptable that such a transfer is made using our airspace,” Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

“Today we received information that this plane was carrying cargo of a nature that could not possibly be in compliance with the rules of civil aviation,” he said on Turkish television.

The interception of the passenger plane was accompanied by two other related moves by Turkey: Yesterday, the Turkish foreign ministry announced that “All civilian flights in Syrian airspace have been stopped since it is not safe.” It was not immediately clear from the announcement whether it was of an advisory nature, or whether the Turkish air force would take active measures to prevent civilian traffic in Syria’s air space.

At the same time, Ankara also disclosed that twenty-five F16 fighter jets had been transferred to the Diyarbakir air base near the Syrian border.

Analysts say that, taken together, the interception of the plane, the declaration that civilian air traffic over Syria had been stopped, and the move of more fighter jets nearer to the border, may mean that Turkey is getting set gradually to increase the pressure on the Assad regime. First, Turkey step will be to create a security zone along its border with Syria. The zone, which would be about 6-mile deep inside Syria, will be declared a no-fly zone by Turkey – enforced by the Turkish air force – allowing the anti-regime forces to gather, organize, and train, free of the fear of Syrian attacks.

A later step will see Turkey impose a no-fly zone over all of Syria. This will not only prevent Assad from using his air force against the rebels, it will also prevent Iran from flying military supplies into Syria.

The Turks now appear to believe that there is a need to bring the civil war in Syria to a quicker end. A prolonged, indecisive strife, especially because of the fragmentation of the anti-Assad forces, allows Jihadi elements to increase their presence and influence, strengthening their hand in post-Assad Syria.

In addition, the Kurds in north-east Syria have now gained a de facto autonomy, and the PKK, the Kurdish separatist movement, is already launching deadly attacks into Turkey from that Kurdish enclave. Turkey wants a new regime in Damascus to be established quickly so it could again impose some order in Syria, including reigning in the Syrian Kurds.