Turkey to face military retaliation by Russia: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Christoph R. Hörstel, federal chairman of Deutsche Mitte Party in Berlin, to discuss Turkey's downing of a Russian jet over Syrian airspace.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: This is trying to be portrayed, by Turkey at least, as a case of he said, she said. Turkey is saying they violated our space, Russia is saying not. But to people like you and perhaps industry insiders, they know who the violator is and who is the guilty party here. Is Turkey the guilty party or not?

Hörstel: What you see is a mixed picture but the clear sign is up that Turkey has in fact air ambushed this Russian plane. We have a very clear situation that the Russian plane was conducting a mission close to the Turkish border and this is in fact what the Turkish government is against. They want to have a ten mile zone of Syria for their own military objectives. They want to operate free of charge. Of course they interfere on the side of IS (Daesh), the biggest seller and buyer of IS oil and gas which IS, Islamic State has stolen in Syria and Iraq and they want to maintain this wonderful position but not give blood for it.

So they want the people in Syria to die. They claim this ten mile zone and what has happened to my understanding is that the Russian plane was flying over a very small piece of a Turkish territory which was reaching inside the Syrian territory and it took a few seconds. Even the Turkish are not denying that the mission of the Russian plane inside Turkish territory was one of a few seconds only. So if there was a shoot down of this plane, the other planes must had been in the air beforehand to wait for the Russian plane - that is the situation you face here - and it was shot down over Syrian territory and it fell into Syrian territory and that all amounts to a crime.

Press TV: New York Times article couple days back cited how there is going to be an economic fallout but in the midst of that article, it said that Russia had given its coordinates to the United States who had then passed on these coordinates to Turkey. The US initially when this incident happened said this is something between Turkey and Russia for just in the past hour the US has come out and said no Russia was in Turkey’s airspace. How do you see US role in this scenario?

Hörstel: First of all, without the US there would never have been this kind of terrible attack on the Syrian territories since 2011. It was their secret service to help build up these militias which are now fighting. They have helped set up IS. They are furnishing IS with supplies, with all kinds of information. They are furnishing them fighters they train. This is what the US is doing, they're culprit to this criminal and bloody war which has caused the biggest wave of refugees since the Second World War. If they have anything to say in this affair, we can expect that it is the usual stuff - dirty lies.

Press TV: And finally and quickly, we have seen Russia retaliate economically and of course it is a foregone conclusion that Russia cannot do anything more because Turkey acted as a NATO member, some people say Turkey acted as Turkey. But how do you think the Kremlin is going to further pursue any retaliatory measures against Turkey?

Hörstel: We can rest assured that Turkey will try the same story again. They will try to interfere with the Russian activity in Syria because Russia is the only country, except Iran, being fully authorized by the legitimate Syrian government to conduct such activities. And for that reason we can be sure NATO will not just watch. They would try to bleed the Russians. This is what the New York Times has published openly in an editorial right after the first deployment of Russian planes to Syria. So this is what we are going to expect and in fact there will be military retaliation by the Russians against the Turkish if that continues.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk