Foreign minister says Ankara will take incident to Nato and dismisses Syria’s claim it did not know plane was Turkish. Turkey’s foreign minister has said the fighter jet shot down by Syrian air defence forces on Friday was in international airspace when it was hit. Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey would formally present the incident to itsNato allies to prepare a response under article four of the alliance’s founding treaty. The article provides for states to “consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened”.
It stops short of the explicit mention of possible armed responses cited in article five.
A Nato spokeswoman said the alliance’s North Atlantic council would meet on Tuesday at Turkey’s request
Davutoglu told the state broadcaster TRT on Sunday that the plane entered Syrian airspace but quickly left when warned by Turkey and was shot down in international airspace several minutes later.
Davutoglu said the plane was clearly marked as Turkish, dismissing Syria‘s earlier statement that it had not known the plane belonged to Turkey, and that it was shot down over Syrian airspace. He said it was on a training flight to test Turkey’s radar capabilities and had no “covert mission related to Syria”.
Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gül, said on Saturday that it was “routine” for jets flying at high speeds to violate other countries’ air spaces for short periods of time.
A statement by the Syrian military said the Turkish plane was flying low, 1km off the Syrian coast, when it was hit by anti-aircraft fire. The plane fell in Syrian waters seven miles west of the village of Um al-Touyour.
In a telephone interview with Turkish TV news channel A Haber on Saturday, Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the incident was “not an attack.”
“An unidentified object entered our airspace and unfortunately as a result it was brought down. It was understood only later that it was a Turkish plane,” A Haber quoted Makdissi in a translation of the interview. “There was no hostile act against Turkey whatsoever. It was just an act of defence for our sovereignty.”
The Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, urged Turkey and Syria late on Saturday to show restraint over the incident, his ministry said.
In a telephone conversation with Davutoglu, Salehi said he hoped the two sides would “settle the issue peacefully to maintain regional stability”, said a statement on the Iranian foreign ministry’s website.
The UK foreign secretary, William Hague, said the “outrageous” act underlined the need for Assad’s regime to go. “My thoughts and sympathies are with the families and friends of the missing Turkish pilots. I have made clear to Foreign Minister Davutoglu the UK’s strong support for the Turkish government at this difficult time,” he said in a statement.
“The Assad regime should not make the mistake of believing that it can act with impunity. It will be held to account for its behaviour. The UK stands ready to pursue robust action at the United Nations security council.”
Turkey has been one of the Syrian regime’s most ardent critics over its brutal domestic crackdown and the incident threatens to add a new international dimension to the internal revolt against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
With the second biggest army in Nato, and 30 years of experience fighting Kurdish rebels, Turkey would be a formidable foe for the Syrian army, which is already struggling to contain the 16-month-old revolt.
Ankara, which had drawn close to Syria before the uprising against Assad, turned against the Syrian leader when he responded violently to pro-democracy protests inspired by popular upheavals elsewhere in the Arab world. Turkey now gives refuge to the rebel Free Syrian Army on its frontier with Syria.