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Turkish Leader Says Russian Arms Found on Syrian Jetliner Turkish Premier Says Russian Munitions Were Found on Syrian Jet
(about 4 hours later)
MOSCOW — Escalating a confrontation with Russia, Turkey’s prime minister said Thursday that Russian military equipment and munitions bound for Syria’s Defense Ministry had been confiscated from a Syrian civilian jetliner on a Moscow-to-Damascus flight, which was forced to land in Ankara on suspicion of illicitly carrying war material. MOSCOW — Turkey’s confrontation with Syria spread on Thursday to include Russia, Syria’s principal military ally, when Turkey’s prime minister said Russian munitions intended for Syria’s government had been impounded from a Syrian commercial jetliner forced to land in Turkey.
The accusation by the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also inflamed Turkey’s already difficult relationship with Syria, where a 19-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad has expanded into a civil war that is threatening the stability of the Middle East. Syria and Russia protested the interception and grounding of the jetliner. Turkish warplanes forced it to land on Wednesday on suspicion of transporting war matériel while en route from Moscow to Damascus with 35 passengers, including a number of Russians. Syria accused the Turks of assaulting the crew, denied that any illegal cargo had been aboard and demanded the return of whatever had been seized.
Mr. Erdogan’s accusation, reported by Turkey’s semiofficial Anatolian News Agency, came only hours after the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Turks of illegally searching the plane and demanded an explanation. A leading Russian arms export company denied that military equipment from Russia could have been aboard. The developments aggravated the combustible atmosphere enveloping the conflict in Syria, where a 19-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad has turned into a civil war that threatens to destabilize the Middle East. Turkey is a major backer of the insurgents trying to topple Mr. Assad and has hinted it may take military action against his forces because of the conflict, which has sent more than 100,000 Syrian refugees into Turkey. Russia is the major arms supplier to Mr. Assad’s government.
The Turks, saying they had acted on an intelligence tip, forced the Air Syria flight with 35 passengers aboard to land at an airport in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Wednesday. Fighting between Syrian insurgents and Mr. Assad’s forces convulsed northern Syria near the Turkish border, with unconfirmed reports that rebels had seized control of a strategic highway into the embattled city of Aleppo that the Syrian Army used to resupply its troops.
“From Russia, an institution equivalent to our Machinery and Chemical Industry has sent military tools, equipment and ammunition to the Syrian Defense Ministry,” Mr. Erdogan was quoted as saying about the plane inspection. He was drawing a comparison to Turkey’s Machinery and Chemical Industry Institution, or MKEK, a leading provider of defense equipment to the Turkish military. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based antigovernment group with a network of contacts inside Syria, calculated that at least 87 soldiers were killed in fighting around the country on Thursday. If true, this would be the military’s heaviest one-day casualty toll since the conflict began. It was impossible to verify the claim.
“Upon the intelligence received, research there was conducted and it was unfortunately seen that there was such equipment inside,” Mr. Erdogan said. The assertion that the impounded Syrian jetliner carried Russian military cargo was made by Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who declined to say how the Turks had come to suspect that the plane was carrying matériel or what precisely had been found. But he said the cargo violated international rules that prohibit passenger aircraft from carrying munitions.
He did not further specify what precisely had been found. “From Russia, an institution equivalent to our Machinery and Chemical Industry has sent military tools, equipment and ammunition to the Syrian Defense Ministry,” Mr. Erdogan was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency. He was drawing a comparison to Turkey’s Machinery and Chemical Industry Institution, a leading provider of defense equipment to the Turkish military.
Mr. Erdogan also said that an upcoming visit to Turkey by Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, had been postponed. He said the postponement had no connection with the forced grounding of the plane. “Upon the intelligence received, research there was conducted, and it was unfortunately seen that there was such equipment inside,” Mr. Erdogan said, referring to the search of the plane.
Earlier, Syria reacted for the first time to the disrupted flight of the Syria Air jetliner, which it said had been prevented from resuming its journey for eight hours. Syrian officials quoted by SANA, the official news agency, called the Turkish action illegal, accused the Turks of mistreating the crew and frightening the passengers, and said Syria would protest the incident to international aviation authorities. Mr. Erdogan also said a planned visit to Turkey by Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, had been postponed, but that the delay had no connection with the forced grounding of the plane.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the plane had been detained on suspicion of harboring weapons and said a number of unspecified cargo items “that infringed on international regulations” had been confiscated. But Mr. Erdogan’s statement was the most detailed yet about what the Turks claimed to have found. The prime minister spoke after Moscow expressed dismay at Turkey’s actions. A statement from Aleksandr K. Lukashevich, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that the forced landing had “threatened the life and safety” of Russian citizens aboard and that Russia “continues to insist on an explanation of the reasons for these actions by the Turkish authorities.”
He spoke after Moscow had expressed dismay at the Turkish actions. A statement from Aleksandr K. Lukashevich, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the forced landing had “threatened the life and safety” of Russian citizens aboard and that Russia “continues to insist on an explanation of the reasons for these actions by the Turkish authorities.” Vyacheslav Davidenko, a spokesman for Rosoboronexport, the Russian company that has a monopoly on legal exports of finished weapons, denied any connection with what the Turks claimed to have found. “We don’t know what cargo was on that plane, but the cargo, whatever it was, does not belong to Rosoboronexport,” Mr. Davidenko said in a telephone interview.
Vyacheslav Davidenko, a spokesman for Rosoboronexport, the Russian company that has a monopoly on legal exports of finished weapons, denied any connection with what the Turks claimed to have found. “We don’t know what cargo was on that plane, but the cargo, whatever it was, does not belong to Rosoboronexport,” he said in a telephone interview. The official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry statement that described a harrowing ordeal for the passengers and crew of the Airbus A320 jetliner.
Moscow’s complaints were quickly rejected by Turkey’s Foreign Ministry, which summoned the Russian ambassador and said the Turks had acted properly and had treated the passengers responsibly, the Anatolian News Agency reported. The ministry’s statement contended that the Turks had forced the plane to sit unattended on the tarmac at the airport in Ankara, the capital, for hours, leaving the occupants to wonder why. Later, after passengers had been escorted into a waiting lounge, “Turkish security authorities subjected the plane to search and assaulted the plane crew,” the ministry said. The plane and passengers were allowed to leave early Thursday.
Russia and Turkey are already at odds over the Syrian crisis, with Ankara joining Western and many Arab nations in support of insurgents seeking to overthrow Mr. Assad, while Moscow has consistently shielded Mr. Assad, its main regional ally. “The plane was carrying no weapons or prohibited goods in accordance with the unblemished international reputation of the Syrian Arab Airlines,” the statement said. It called upon Turkey “to return the rest of the plane’s contents intact.”
Despite their differences — and a cold-war history of animosity — Russia has been striving in recent months to build its relationship with Turkey, which is one of Russia’s largest trading partners and a key player in regional politics.

Ellen Barry reported from Moscow, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon; Sebnem Arsu from Hatay, Turkey; Alan Cowell from Paris; and Christine Hauser from New York.

Mr. Erdogan visited Moscow in late July, and Mr. Putin’s now-postponed reciprocal visit had been scheduled to take place in coming days.
Some Russian analysts said that they expected the two sides to step back from further confrontation over the forced landing.
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor in chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, said that though the two countries have assumed opposing positions in the Syrian crisis, Russian policy makers have accepted Turkey’s stance because they view it as driven by domestic considerations. Tens of thousands of refugees have crossed the Turkish border as violence in Syria mounted, fueling grievances among Turks about their government’s handling of the crisis.
“Now Turkey cannot be an outside observer and an outside force — it’s about Turkish stability,” Mr. Lukyanov said. The relationship could suffer, he said, “if the crisis will escalate and Turkey will be more and more in the middle of the Syrian struggle. But so far, they will find a face-saving way to preserve the relationship.”

Ellen Barry reported from Moscow, Anne Barnard from Beirut, Lebanon, and Sebnem Arsu from Hatay, Turkey. Reporting was contributed by Alan Cowell from Paris, Christine Hauser and Rick Gladstone from New York, and Hwaida Saad from Beirut.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 11, 2012Correction: October 11, 2012

Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian leader. He is president, not prime minister.

Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian leader. He is president, not prime minister.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 11, 2012Correction: October 11, 2012

An earlier version of this article misattributed a quotation regarding allegations that a Syrian Air flight forced to land by Turkey was carrying Russian military equipment bound for Syria.  It was Fyodor Lukyanov, a Russian foreign policy analyst – not Aleksandr K. Lukashevich, a spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry — who said in an interview with Kommersant FM, a radio station: “Who could know that? According to Turkey, there was. The Russian side isn’t saying anything exact, but I cannot rule out that something could have been there.”

An earlier version of this article misattributed a quotation regarding allegations that a Syrian Air flight forced to land by Turkey was carrying Russian military equipment bound for Syria.  It was Fyodor Lukyanov, a Russian foreign policy analyst – not Aleksandr K. Lukashevich, a spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry — who said in an interview with Kommersant FM, a radio station: “Who could know that? According to Turkey, there was. The Russian side isn’t saying anything exact, but I cannot rule out that something could have been there.”

It was also Mr. Lukyanov, not Mr. Lukshevich, who said “I think that tension will now develop in the relationship between Russia and Turkey.”It was also Mr. Lukyanov, not Mr. Lukshevich, who said “I think that tension will now develop in the relationship between Russia and Turkey.”