Speaking at a media conference on security, surveillance and intelligence organized by global news network RT on Thursday, Assange suggested that the attack may have been the result of the Justice and Development Party's electoral ambitions.
Suggesting that Turkey's leadership had a "domestic nationalist imperative" to shoot down the Russian plane, Assange noted that "there is some other information which has arisen – that what occurred was a plan that was set immediately before the [parliamentary] elections [taking place November 1], which Erdogan's party won."
The activist noted that the AKP had had effectively set up "a national imperative to win that election" which included "rules of engagement…such that if there was a technical violation, even for a second, of Turkish airspace, or if it could be suggested that there was, this could be a plan to ensure winning that election, and those rules of engagement were not taken down."
Pessimistically, Assange noted that given Turkey's perceived interests in Syria, Ankara is likely "to continue to push to have various forms of control of at least northern Syria."
As far as the Daesh terrorists are concerned, Assange is convinced that "we're going to come to a point, in about six months' time, where ISIS is almost completely debilitated as a state [devolving] back to being a guerrilla group."
Once that happens, several powerful regional players will be left in the vacuum, which Assange worries will only result in further conflict. "What are all those forces going to do then? Do you think that they're just going to go home? Of course not. They can just steer 70 kilometers into Damascus if they want. So I think that it's a very dangerous situation."
