Israel Matzav

Turkey calls NATO over Syria shooting down its F-4; Turkey claims plane had left Syrian airspace

They still haven't invoked Article 5 of the NATO treaty, as Daniel Pipes thought they would, but Turkey has asked for a consultation with its NATO partners regarding the Turkish plane that was shot down by Syria under Article 4 of the treaty (Hat Tip: Tuna T).

"Turkey has requested consultations under Article 4 of Nato's founding Washington Treaty," she told Reuters.

"Under article 4, any ally can request consultations whenever, in the opinion of any of them, their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened."

Turkey wants to be sure of the strongest backing once it decides its official response, reports the BBC's Jonathan Head in Istanbul.

The government has promised that it will be strong, decisive and legitimate, and that it will share all the information it has with the public.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu became the first senior Turkish official to challenge Syria's account of the downing of the jet.

After lengthy meetings with military chiefs, he told TRT state television that the unarmed jet had "momentarily" entered Syrian airspace by mistake on Friday but had left when it was shot down 15 minutes later.

"According to our conclusions, our plane was shot down in international airspace, 13 nautical miles (24km) from Syria," he said.

According to international law, a country's airspace extends 12 nautical miles (22.2km) from its coastline, corresponding with its territorial waters.

Mr Davutoglu also insisted that the jet had not been on a "covert mission related to Syria" but had instead been carrying out a training flight to test Turkey's radar capabilities.

He said the plane had not "shown any hostility", been clearly marked as Turkish, and that he did not agree with the Syrian military's statement that it had not known to whom it belonged.

Maybe Syria will apologize.... Heh....

Labels: Abdullah Gul, Ahmet Davutoglu, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Turkey

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:41 PM