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President Abdullah Gul says his country would take the "necessary" action against Syria.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has said it is not possible to ignore the fact that Syria shot down one of its military jets.
"It is not possible to cover over a thing like this, whatever is necessary will be done," Gul was quoted as saying by state news agency Anatolia on Saturday. It was not immediately clear where he was speaking from.
"It is routine for jet fighters to sometimes fly in and out over [national] borders ... when you consider their speed over the sea," Gul told Anatolia. "These are not ill-intentioned things but happen beyond control due to the jets' speed."
Gul also said Ankara had been in telephone contact with Damascus and that a joint search operation for the plane and missing pilots was still under way.
The statement comes after the Syrian military said it shot down a Turkish fighter jet "over its territorial waters", risking a new crisis between the neighbours already at bitter odds over a 16-month-old revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"Our air defences confronted a target that penetrated our air space over our territorial waters pre-afternoon on Friday and shot it down. It turned out to be a Turkish military plane," a statement by the military circulated on state media said.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office confirmed the incident in which two pilots went missing.
"As a result of information obtained from the evaluation of our concerned institutions and from within the joint search and rescue operations with Syria, it is understood that our plane was brought down by Syria," Erdogan's office said in a statement.
Turkey would decide on its response to the incident once all the details became clear, it said in the statement, issued after a two-hour meeting between Erdogan, members of his cabinet and the military.
Government forces shelled northern Syria with helicopters Saturday, opposition activists said, a day after U.S. officials reiterated calls for the troops to break ties with the regime.
At least two people died in the attacks in Aleppo and Homs, the Local Coordination Committees said
The new attacks come the same week U.S. officials applauded the defection of four senior Syrian military officers to the opposition, calling it another sign that the government of President Bashar al-Assad is weakening.
Jordan granted a Syrian pilot asylum Thursday after he landed his military jet in the neighboring country and announced his defection.
"We have had four senior army officers -- two brigadier generals and two colonels -- defect yesterday and join the opposition," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday.
To ambush the Turkish Air Force F-4 Super Phantom Friday June 22, over Latakia, Syria used Russian-made self-propelled medium range anti-air Buk-M2 missiles (NATO codenamed SA-11) recently supplied by Moscow. The SA-11 can down aircraft flying at altitudes up to 14 kilometers and Mach 3 speed.
Since the sophisticated weapons were delivered to the Assad regime in recent weeks, it must be assumed that local missile crews had not finished training in their use and would have had to rely on help from their Russian instructors to fire one.
This would be the first instance in the 15-month Syrian uprising of an advanced Russian-supplied weapon hitting the military target of a NATO member. Hence the comment from Washington by US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland who said: “We’ve seen the reports… We have obviously been in contact with our Turkish ally…. To my knowledge, they haven’t raised this at NATO at this point.”
Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by Ben81
Like I put up on another thread.....
it was NOT a Turkish fighter jet as MSM told you, it was in fact a Turkish reconnaissance aircraft.
Secondly, show me proof Syria shot it down.....
The IAF was up in the skies at the same time.......edit on 23-6-2012 by bluemirage5 because: (no reason given)
The "Free Syria Army" is literally an army of militant extremists, many drawn not from Syria's military ranks, but from the Muslim Brotherhood, carrying heavy weapons back and forth over the Turkish and Lebanese borders, funded, supported, and armed by the United States, Israel, and Turkey. The latest evidence confirming this comes in the form of a report out of the International Institute for Strategic Studies where Senior Fellow for Regional Security at IISS-Middle East Emile Hokayem openly admits Syria's opposition is armed and prepared to drag Syria's violence into even bloodier depths.
Must Read Article About What is Really Going on in Syria
Complaining that it got shot down and saying there is a need for retaliation kinda looks like the agenda was in place beforehand?!?
"Our investigation will focus on whether the plane was brought down within our borders or not," Gul said. "Because the consequences could be quite serious, there will be no clear statement before the details (of the incident) are scrutinized," Gul said
Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
Article from November last year...
The "Free Syria Army" is literally an army of militant extremists, many drawn not from Syria's military ranks, but from the Muslim Brotherhood, carrying heavy weapons back and forth over the Turkish and Lebanese borders, funded, supported, and armed by the United States, Israel, and Turkey. The latest evidence confirming this comes in the form of a report out of the International Institute for Strategic Studies where Senior Fellow for Regional Security at IISS-Middle East Emile Hokayem openly admits Syria's opposition is armed and prepared to drag Syria's violence into even bloodier depths.
Must Read Article About What is Really Going on in Syria
Originally posted by PatriotsPride
This is very interesting as well,the possibility that the plane could have been shot down
while in Turkish airspace.If that turns out to be true,then all hell will break loose.
"Our investigation will focus on whether the plane was brought down within our borders or not," Gul said. "Because the consequences could be quite serious, there will be no clear statement before the details (of the incident) are scrutinized," Gul said
link
www.foxnews.com...
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on Saturday a jet that was shot down by Syria a day earlier was not a warplane but a reconnaissance aircraft, state television TRT reported.
It was not immediately clear where Arinc, who is one of four deputy prime ministers and also the government's spokesman, was speaking. Turkish media reported the downed jet was an F-4 Phantom, a supersonic jet fighter which can also carry out reconnaissance operations.
(Reporting by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Alison Williams)