Little nugget breaking in the last few minutes: Russian jet hit inside Syria after incursion into Turkey - U.S. official It's all a bit moot. Damage done, men dead etc., but if it's ever proven that the plane had left Turkish airspace before being fired upon, then things get more... peculiar. Somewhat harder to justify things if the target had already turned away.
Perhaps Turkey are hoping to fast-track EU membership by showing their willingness to antagonise the Russians? That could also solve the refugee crisis at a stroke as they'd all suddenly be within the borders and could be 'integrated' without a fuss.
Turks should actively guard their border with Syria, to cut off IS supply lines. Turkey will not be a member unless their attitude towards human rights changes dramatically. For the time being, we do need them, as we want to destroy the world's enemy Nr. 1.
If those Turkmen are genuinely 'moderate.......militiamen' goodness knows what a non-moderate type looks like. Not sure of the way forward but it's clear that it will be quite some considerable time before Syria becomes a non-failed State governed by the Rule of Law. At least one traditional aspect of War is consistent: Gods support is claimed by all sides!
Can I do a little politic fiction? In 2010 the most of the world is in economic crisis. Mr Obama had a great Idea! If we (USA) put on the farcical arab springs we could deny to our vicius and unfaithfully european allies use of Lybian an Tunisian oilfields. Than we could put on a Coup of etat in Crimea so Russian federation will reply militarly. So we could force our unfaithful and vicious European allies to put on an Embargo wich will destroy their ad Russian economy, while our grown up. Then we could use our allies of ISIL to force the Unfaithful and vicious Iraqui governement to abandon contact with IRAN. Aside we could accept that Turkey and Saudi Arabia reunifies Ottoman Empire taking care of Iraq and Siria, maybe also Lebanon and Egypt. In this case our economy could continue to grow up, while our unfaithful and vicious european allies have at least 3 o 4 great problem to solve. Only Science fiction? When we tell WE, what does it mean exactly?
They do occasionally stray quite close to UK airspace - as well as the occasional unexpected sub siting (albeit hopefully outside of UK waters!) off the coast, presumably for some vital purpose. In addition a lot of essential "assets" are now in "technically" international waters/territory i.e. cables - oil rig pipelines, international air flights (a lot of which are routed due to convenience all over each other's "air). I think that with the satellite age inc. the international space-station one assumed incidents like the U2 being shot down had faded - but essentially calm heads have to prevail as to what's permissible as an "accident" as well as firm rules on what's really "too far". This one is a grey area and so they have to mediate and fix / re-read some rules going forwards. Russia needs access through Turkey's waters in order to get to the Med... though so it probably won't be the start of "something big" - but I would kind of expect a spat of further unpleasant tit-for-tat until someone feels like it's enough of a draw to claim that they came out on top - or at least until it gets deeper into the state of cutting off ones own nose to spite one's face....