The Syrians knew damn well who's aircraft it was and the Turks used to be known as fearsome warriors and it is beyond me why The Turkish Army ain't right now stomping Assad's guts out...has to be the increasing Islamist influence in Turkey.
...wherever the Evil Islamists take hold of a country soldiers no longer fight face to face—no, they become cowardly terrorists, dishonorable assassins and mass murderers of innocent women and children
Enh. Turkey was already killing women and children during WW I. They were ahead of their time.
Turkey's Islamist government has hand-picked Muslim Brotherhood figures to lead the Syrian rebels. They'd love to help the Syrians rebels in any way they can. But wars are expensive, and Turkey's record against its Kurdish rebels isn't all that impressive - the kill ratio is something like 2 to 1, which stinks given that they are fighting against lightly-armed rebels equipped with battle rifles and RPG's. Turks are reputed to be brave fighters, but skill-wise, they really stink. An incursion into Syria would cost them billions of dollars in equipment and supply expenditures they cannot afford. That surveillance mission by the F-4 alone ended in a $20m write-off. The one thing guaranteed to result in a defeat for Erdogan at the polls is thousands of Turkish body bags coming home from Syria.