Ankara vows to take 'necessary action' after Syria shoots down Turkish jet

Turkey’s leaders have warned that they will take “necessary” action in response to the shooting down of one of its warplanes by Syria.
 
Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gül, said Turkish and Syrian forces were working together to search for the two missing crew of the F-4 aircraft, which was shot down over the Mediterranean on Friday and that any cover-up would not be possible, The Guardian writes.
 
“There is no doubt that the necessary steps will be taken.” However, he did not elaborate on what these would be.Gül said the investigation was focusing on whether the plane was brought down within Turkey’s borders or over that of neighbouring Syria, which the Syrian government claims. “Because the consequences could be quite serious, there will be no clear statement before the details [of the incident] are scrutinised,” Gül said.
 
While the Syrian government claims that it was within its rights to shoot down the plane, which it said was flying low and fast over Syrian territorial waters, Gül said it was “routine” for jets flying at high speeds to violate other countries’ air spaces for short periods of time.
 
Following the incident, Syria’s state-run news agency, Sana, said the “unidentified aerial target” had been hit by anti-air defences, “according to laws observed in such cases”.
 
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 16-month internal revolt against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
 
With the second biggest army in Nato, a force hardened by nearly 30 years of fighting Kurdish rebels, Turkey would be a formidable foe for the Syrian army, which is already struggling to put down a 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.   Read more... (348 words)

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