On Feb. 9, when I heard reports that a Russian aircraft had accidentally bombed a Turkish position in al-Bab, killing four soldiers and wounding 10 others, I did not immediately think that it might not have been an accident. I thought that way because I am generally immune to the conspiracy theories that are rampant in Turkey, just as they are in most Middle Eastern countries.

The Turkish army quickly issued a communique saying the bombing was an "accident." However, there was no mention of an “accident” in the Russian version that came later. In the Russian version, there was no mention of “regret” either. A day later, the Russians were a bit more articulate. They issued another statement, implicitly putting the blame on the Turkish side for having given the wrong coordinates on the deployment of Turkish troops, resulting in the casualties.

The Turkish General Staff quickly rebutted the Russian “interpretation,” pointing out that the coordinates of the location where the Turkish casualties occurred had been given to the Russian side eight days previously and also the night before.

Some in the Turkish media with a soft spot for fantasies claimed that the Syrian regime might have intentionally misled the Russians. There were claims that the air attack was in fact conducted by Syrian air forces or that Syrian forces acted on false intelligence provided by Russian intelligence.