Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad ordered the killing of two Turkish air force pilots who were
captured after their fighter jet was shot down on June 22, 2012, files obtained
by Al Arabiya show. (Al Arabiya)
| by Al Arabiya
( September 29,
2012, UAE, Sri Lanka Guardian) As political tensions mount between neighboring
Syria and Turkey, newly-leaked Syrian intelligence documents obtained by Al
Arabiya disclose shocking claims shedding light on the dreadful fate of two
Turkish Air Force pilots.
Contrary to what
was publically claimed, the documents reveal that the pilots survived the
crash, but were later executed by the regime of Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad!
This disclosure
is the first in a series of revelations based on a number of newly-leaked and
highly classified Syrian security documents which will be aired in a special
program produced by Al Arabiya over the next two weeks; the channel’s English
portal – http://english.alarabiya.net – will be carrying a subtitled version of
the program on daily basis as well as publishing downloadable copies of the
leaked documents.
The documents
were obtained with the assistance of members of the Syrian opposition who
refused to elaborate on how they laid hand on the documents.
Al Arabiya said
that it has verified and authenticated hundreds of these documents and that it
is has decided to disclose the ones with substantial news value and political
relevance.
The downed jet
On June 22, a
Turkish military jet was shot down by a Syrian missile in international
airspace, Ankara’s official report said; a claim Damascus has refuted.
Assad’s regime
said the country’s defense forces shot down the two-seater F-4 Phantom as it
was in the Syrian airspace.
In an interview
with Turkish paper Cumhuriyet published in July, Assad said he wished his
forces did not shoot down the jet, claiming that Damascus did not know the
identity of the plane at the time.
The incident set
off tensions between the former allies, but Ankara, which had vowed a harsh
response to any border violations by Syria, limited its reaction to sending
military reinforcements to the common frontiers.
The two pilots
on board of the jet were killed.
But both
official reports by Syria and Turkey have restrained their explanation on the
causes of the deaths of Air Force Captain Gokhan Ertan and Air Force Lieutenant
Hasan Huseyin Aksoy.
Turkey’s armed
forces said it had found the bodies of both pilots on the Mediterranean seabed.
“The bodies (of
the two pilots) have been recovered [from] the seabed and work is underway to
bring them to the surface,” the army command said in a statement released early
in July.
The military did
not specify where the bodies were found, but there has been no report that the
pilots ejected from the plane.
However, after
investigating the leaked documents it obtained, Al Arabiya can now reveal for
the first time an alternative narrative of what might have happened to the two
Turkish pilots.
One highly
confidential document was sent directly from the presidential office of
President Assad to brigadier Hassan Abdel Rahman (who Al Arabiya’s sources
identify as the chief of the Syrian Special Operations Unit) states the
following:
“Two Turkish
pilots were captured by the Syrian Air Force Intelligence after their jet was
shot down in coordination with the Russian naval base in (the Syrian city of)
Tartus.”
Picture of the highly
confidential document sent from the office of the Syrian president confirming
the capture of the two Turkish pilots (Al Arabiya)
The file
therefore reveals two critical reports. First, the pilots were still alive
after the plane had crashed. And second, that Russia held its share of
involvement in this secretive mission.
The same
document orders the concerned parties to treat both Turkish pilots according to
the protocol of war prisoners, as instructed by the president.
It also requests
that both men be investigated about Turkey’s role in supporting the Free Syrian
Army (FSA), the country’s main armed opposition group.
The report also
suggests the possibility of transferring the pilots into the neighboring
Lebanese territory, leaving them in the custody of Assad’s ally, Hezbollah.
However, if the
Turkish air commanders were not killed upon the crash of their F-4 Phantom,
further leaked documents confirm that their death was inevitable.
Russian
“Guidance”
A subsequently
leaked file, also sent from the presidential palace and addressed to all heads
of units of the Syrian foreign intelligence, reads: “Based on information and
guidance from the Russian leadership comes a need to eliminate the two Turkish
pilots detained by the Special Operations Unit in a natural way and their
bodies need to be returned to the crash site in international waters.”
The document
also suggests the Syrian government sends a “menacing” message to the Turkish
government, insinuating Syria’s capability of mobilizing Kurdistan’s Workers
Party (PKK) on the Turkish borders, notifying Ankara from the danger it might
face in case of any hostile move.
A copy of the presidential
order for the killing in a “natural way” of two Turkish pilots. (Al Arabiya)
The report
insists that the Syrian leadership should hasten and make a formal apology to
the Turkish government for bringing down the plane, which would embarrass the
Turks and win the support of international public opinion. As such, the Syrian
Regime did apologize.
Al Arabiya’s
exclusive series on the newly-leaked Syrian security documents continues
tomorrow.
