'With Us or with the Terrorists': It's Clear Which Side Turkey Is On

. However, even if the Turkish version prevails, the Russian plane at most would have been over Turkey for a well under a minute and presented no threat to anything or anyone inside Turkey. As stated by Valeriy Burkov, a Russian military pilot and recipient of the Hero of Russia medal: "It's clear that this was a premeditated action; they were prepared and just waited for a Russian plane to show up. It wasn't downed because of pilot error, or because he was trigger-happy or whatever. This is preplanned, premeditated action." That assessment is likely true even if the aircraft passed momentarily into Turkey.

[UPDATE NOV. 27: Not only is it almost certain that Turkey was waiting in ambush to shoot down a Russian plane when the opportunity presented itself, it is increasingly clear it did so using information provided by Russia to the "US-led coalition" -- that is, the United States -- as to the Su-24's flight path. Put another way, Russia provided information about its operations to the US as part of a supposed cooperation against ISIS, which information the U.S. then shared with Turkey, which then used the information to shoot down the Su-24. Whether that is the extent of likely US complicity is unknown. For example, did Turkey proceed with its attack after consulting with the coalition -- again, meaning the US -- or did they proceed on their own without consulting or seeking clearance from anyone? One of the two Su-24 crew were killed by "moderate" terrorists supported by Turkey (and the U.S.?) as they parachuted to safety, a war crime in itself. Another Russian, a marine, was reported killed when his rescue helicopter searching for the Su-24 crew was shot down with a US-made TOW missile supplied to the jihadists.]

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