A stab in the back? Was Russia friends with Turkey before this, or is he talking about some other back stabber?
Probably has double meaning referring to Turkey and US, or more specifically Obama. Putin probably thought all involved were working together in at least a “loose” coalition to defeat ISIS. I’m sure he didn’t see Turkey to be enough of an enemy that would shoot down its jet.
The article leaves no doubt his thoughts on Turkey’s status going forward. As if we needed an article to figure that one out.
It begs the question, does Turkey think it made a big mistake? Is it going to try and find a way to undo at least some of the damage it has done with Putin. That will be challenging considering that under almost all circumstances this would be considered an act of war.
All stabs in the back are not necessarily from friends. It just means it was unexpected and sneaky. The two were not at war and whether there was or was not an airspace violation, at most it was seconds long. Turkey knew it was not a threat on their homeland. Turkey does not want Russia siding with Assad so Turkey is claiming the airspace violation in order to fight offensively while claiming a defensive position.