By Prof. Giancarlo Elia Valor

A Russian aircraft, a Sukhoi-24, which NATO calls Fencer, the low-flying tactical bomber - an aircraft considered better than our Tornado - was shot down north of Latakia by a Turkish F-16. The Russian aircraft was flying at an altitude of 6,000 meters.  The Turkish area of ??action was Jabat al Akrad, along the border between Syria and the Turkish area of Yayladagi. According to the Russians, about a kilometer from the Turkish border.

The Russian aircraft is likely to have really crossed the border into the Turkish territory - which happens often - and the order to shoot it down was given directly by the Turkish Prime Minister Davutoglu who, ironically, as previous Minister for Foreign Affairs, had invented the slogan of the new AKP Turkey: "zero problems with neighboring countries.” With this type of aircraft, slight border crossings are almost the rule, even supposing that the Turkish version is true.

The Russians, of course, tell another story: the Su-24 was shot in the North of Syria and both pilots managing to escape by jumping out of the cabin.

Here again the Turkish statements are conflicting. One of the two pilots was supposedly killed by the jihadists, whereas the other one was captured by the Tenth Brigade of Turkmen Rebels, one of many jihadist organizations funded directly by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Coincidentally, this organization operates precisely in the Latakia area, on the edge of the Russian positions. The video released by the "Tenth Brigade" shows a Russian pilot, with severe head injuries, surrounded by jubilant "rebels". The Russian attack helicopters are scouring the area looking for survivors or, other data on the Turkish action.

Outside official channels, the Russians also spoke of a land missile allegedly hitting the Su-24. Putin said that Russian aircrafts never pose any threat to Turkey, but it is precisely north of Latakia, even in the ranks of the "Tenth Brigade", that many jihadists coming from Russia lurk – and the countries which support the local jihad have sent their "rebels" of Russian origin there for obvious infiltration and terrorism purposes.

When the Russian President was informed of the plane downing, even though he was receiving the King of Jordan, Abdullah II, he talked of "terrorists’ accomplices" who had inflicted "a stab in Russia’s back".

The data collected so far is important and revealing.

The issue is that, thanks to US President Obama’s irenic foreign policy and the EU absolute irrelevance, Mesopotamia had become a perfect test for the sword jihad and its supporters.

Unfortunately, the Russian Federation has set in, since it is not afraid of fighting and has not been discussing for months whether we need boots on the ground in Syria or not. It sends them there, and that's it.

However, as soon as Russia appeared in Syria, as many as 51 Imams came from the whole Arabian Peninsula to condemn the Russian presence in the Syrian-Iraqi region, while Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait increased, by at least 60%, their supplies of funds and weapons to the various anti-Assad groups of "rebels", by sending new resources to the AQAP, the Al Qaeda fraction operating in Mali, Mauritania and Morocco. An evident pincer movement.

Basically, Turkey - mindful of the huge funding that the AKP, the party led by Persident Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutoglu, had received at the beginning of its political life by Saudi Arabia -  now formally a NATO member, but substantially a part of the Sunni front.

Not to mention the fact that, after President Erdogan’s victory in the recent Turkish elections, the European politicians have rushed to revive the issue - fortunately set aside - of Turkey’s accession to the EU. Turkey is already a NATO member, but is a country still mindful of the lesson of Kemal Ataturk and the "young Turks", who had been trained to the modernization of the Ottoman Empire in the Italian Masonic lodges of Thessaloniki, Alexandria and Istanbul. Today Turkey is playing more games: the creation of a large Panturanic front ranging from Anatolia, which is also Alevi or Alawite, up to the Uighur rebels of the Chinese Xinkiang, which Turkey is still training and funding.

This is an anti-Russian action in itself and, in fact, many of the so-called anti-Assad rebels are currently recruited in Dagestan and in the other Russian and post-Soviet Muslim republics.

Later, according to Erdogan, Turkey will build the new Greater Turkey by taking pieces of the Sunni areas of Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. These are Erdogan’s and Davutoglu’s two projects.

Certainly, if Putin declares, as he has recently done, that the ISIS is suffering a crushing defeat, we can understand why certain countries that support it decide to take a hardline approach and shoot down the Su-24.

Hence, if NATO keeps on using Turkey to penetrate into the Middle East, the Atlantic Alliance will work for the King of Prussia, namely for the Sunni network focused on Saudi Arabia, and will create instability throughout the Middle East, which will turn and recoil against us in the Mediterranean.

These are the shortcomings and limits of an amateur-style foreign policy, only focused on election results, as well as politicians’ and leaders’ etiquette, while the issue lies in resuming the dear old lesson of political realism, of national interest and of the reasons of State. 

Professor Giancarlo Elia Valori is an eminent Italian economist and businessman. He holds prestigious academic distinctions and national orders. Mr Valori has lectured on international affairs and economics at the world’s leading universities such as Peking University, theHebrew University of Jerusalem and the Yeshiva University in New York.

He currently chairs "La Centrale Finanziaria Generale Spa", he is also the honorary president of Huawei Italy, economic adviser to the Chinese giant HNA Group and Khashoggi Holding’s advisor.

In 1992 he was appointed Officier de la Légion d'Honneur de la République Francaise, with this motivation: "A man who can see across borders to understand the world” and in 2002 he received the title of "Honorable" of the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France."