Turkish Jets Shoot Syrian War Plane Out of the Sky; Turkey and Qatar Excluded from Islamic Conference in Egypt

BALTIMORE, Maryland March 23, 2014 - The AP says that Turkish Jet, scrambled when a Syrian Warplane violated its air space, shot the Syrian plane out of the sky on Sunday. Syria acknowledged the incident but claimed the Syrian jet was in Syrian air space.

Syria called the incident an act of "blatant aggression." Both sides said the Syrian pilot parachuted to safety.

The two nations have been at odds over the Syrian civil war. Once allies, Turkey has openly backed rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated the Turkish pilots and told a crowd at a campaign rally that "If you violate our border, our slap will be hard."

If the incident with the Syrian Plane was to Erdogan's liking, the express exclusion of his nation from an important Islamic Conference beginning this week in Egypt cannot be. Egyptian leaders have been on the outs with the Turks ever since they came to power in July, 2013. Erdogan was a close ally of Mohammed Morsi and his government, heavily peopled by members of the infamous Muslim Brotherhood. Things worsened in late November, 2013 when Erdogan said publicly that he "had no respect" for the current Egyptian Government, especially those responsible for putting Morsi on trial. Egypt reacted by expelling Turkey's ambassador and scaling back all diplomatic relations with the Ankara government. Currently, the two nations operate with charge d'affaires conducting only bare bones diplomatic duties. Turkey believed that Morsi, democratically elected, was never given a chance to succeed and was ousted by an illegal coup. The Muslim Brotherhood is openly friendly with Al Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 Massacre of thousands of civilians in the United States.

Egypt's problems with Qatar are really quite similar. Qatar has openly communicated with Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, and is continuing its support of Morsi. In contrast, countries like Saudi Arabia have designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Several nations - Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - have recalled their ambassadors from Qatar to protest Doha's continued support for Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. A lot of the facts in this article are presented in an article in Ankara-based "Today's Zaman" newspaper. See the article at this web address: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-342825-turkey-not-invited-to-islam-conference-in-cairo.html