Turkey: Downed jet was hit in international airspace

12 years ago | Posted in: Latest Politics News | 634 Views

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has said an F-4 jet downed by Syria on Friday was hit in international airspace and that it was on a training mission to test Turkey’s own national radar system, adding that it was unarmed and had no mission related to Syria.

“The downed Turkish jet was shot down in the international flight zone 13 miles outside of Syria’s flight zone,” he said on Sunday during an interview with TRT Haber. He further noted that the jet was only tasked with a routine test of Turkey’s own radar system. In reference to Syria’s response, Davuto?lu said, “It is either amateurish behavior or ill-intention to describe the Turkish plane as a threat.”

Explaining that in order to conduct the radar test the plane had to fly at a low altitude, Davuto?lu said the jet was hit 13 miles off the Syrian coast in international air space. “Our plane shortly violated Syrian airspace, but not during the time it was shot down,” he said.

The foreign minister further said Syria had not delivered any warnings to Turkey. “During the entire operation conducted by the downed jet, Syria made no attempt to contact Turkish authorities by any means,” he said. Davuto?lu added that Turkish intelligence intercepted radio communications from the Syrian side suggesting that they knew it was a Turkish plane.

He said Turkey’s response will be clear after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s scheduled meeting with opposition leaders on Sunday. “We will, without any hesitation, decisively take the necessary steps regarding the Turkish plane downed by Syria,” he added.

Syria said Saturday it shot down a Turkish reconnaissance plane because the plane entered its airspace, insisting it was “not an attack” as both sides desperately tried to de-escalate the episode before it exploded into a regional conflagration.

The downed plane heightened tensions between two countries that had been allies before Syria’s 15-month violent uprising, and signaled that the violence gripping Syria is increasingly bleeding outside its borders. Germany and Iraq were among the countries urging restraint in the region.

Syria and neighboring Turkey had cultivated close ties before the Syrian revolt began in March 2011, but since then Turkey has become one of the strongest critics of Syria’s regime.

 

Ref: todayszaman.com

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