I definitely got it

Submitted by Albert (Greece), Jul 6, 2012 at 11:59

That is exactly my point I am afraid. My personal view is that Turkey is only interested in appearing aggressive and powerful to its neighbor states and even allies. And that is why I used the "barking dog" theory referring to the old proverb "a barking dog never bites". To me, and not only myself I reckon, such a shot down would have been an unprecedented change of foreign policy! With all due respect, but I would not expect anything close to a shot down event to occur even if the helis flew as deeply as Ankara then landed at the city centre to get a cup of coffee and baklavas and then flew back to Damascus.

All in all, I agree with you since we appear to be reaching the same conclusion and that is that "Turkey is NOT aggressive". The difference is, and please correct me if I got this wrong, that you present this "non-aggressiveness" as the product of a mature and peacemaking way of thinking foreign politics whereas myself simply thinks that the "non-aggressiveness" is a sign of weakness. To put it schematically, Turkey pretends to be aggressive and full of testosterone then gets a slap in the face and stops being aggressive and calls a NATO meeting to complain for the slap!

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