Why did Turkey shoot down Russian fighter jet?

The potential consequences of Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian fighter jet for allegedly violating its airspace are chilling. But the West must not overreact.

The potential consequences of Turkey's decision to shoot down a Russian fighter jet for allegedly violating its airspace near the Syrian border are "chilling", says John Bradley in the Daily Mail. This is the first time in 50 years that a Nato country has brought down a Russian jet. Be "under no illusion" it was a "calculated" effort to undermine Russia's campaign against Islamic State (IS) as well as its recently formed alliance with France.

Islamist-ruled Turkey, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is "strongly opposed" to Russia's ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and has "openly supported jihadist groups in Syria" fighting him. Turkey's frontier with Syria has been described as a "two-way jihadist highway".

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Andrew Van Sickle
Editor, MoneyWeek

Andrew is the editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He grew up in Vienna and studied at the University of St Andrews, where he gained a first-class MA in geography & international relations.

After graduating he began to contribute to the foreign page of The Week and soon afterwards joined MoneyWeek at its inception in October 2000. He helped Merryn Somerset Webb establish it as Britain’s best-selling financial magazine, contributing to every section of the publication and specialising in macroeconomics and stockmarkets, before going part-time.

His freelance projects have included a 2009 relaunch of The Pharma Letter, where he covered corporate news and political developments in the German pharmaceuticals market for two years, and a multiyear stint as deputy editor of the Barclays account at Redwood, a marketing agency.

Andrew has been editing MoneyWeek since 2018, and continues to specialise in investment and news in German-speaking countries owing to his fluent command of the language.