Sunday, June 24, 2012

Turkey: Syria shot down jet without warning

  • NEW: Turkey will respond "decisively," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says
  • He accuses Syria of spreading disinformation about the incident
  • He says Syria should have forced the plane down if they thought it was hostile
  • The U.N. secretary-general expresses his "deep concern" about the situation

Istanbul (CNN) -- Syria gave no warning before shooting down a Turkish military jet that strayed into its territory, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday in a strongly worded appearance where he also accused Syria of spreading "disinformation" about the incident.

"They have created the impression that Syria felt like it was an act of aggression and they shot it down.... from our perspective that's not the case," Davutoglu told reporters.

The plane in the Friday incident was unarmed, not sending hostile signals, and identifiable as Turkish, he said.

"You have to first send a caution, a warning," he said in the first detailed Turkish statement on the international incident. "If the warning doesn't work, you scramble your planes, you send a stronger signal, you force the plane to land. There wasn't enough time to do any of that in the time that our plane was in Syrian airspace."

"We have to question how it is that an unarmed, solo flight got this response from the Syrians," he said.

He said the fighter jet was in international airspace when it was fired upon.

It had strayed into Syrian territory in a "short, unintentional violation," but was notified by the Turkish side that it had crossed the line, and returned to international airspace, Davutoglu said.

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Turkey will respond "decisively," but within international law, the foreign minister vowed, saying: "It's a fine line."

Turkey will take its case to NATO, of which is it a key member, the minister said.

The plane was participating in a test of Turkey's national radar system, he said.

Turkish boats and helicopters are searching for the two-man crew inside Syrian waters, he said. He said the search-and-rescue mission was not a joint operation with Syria, but was being coordinated with Damascus because it is in their territory.

Davutoglu has spoken with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the foreign ministers of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and Iran, and the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton since the incident, spokesman Selcuk Unal told CNN on Saturday.

The Syrian military shot down the plane Friday as it flew just off the Mediterranean coast. A Syrian military spokesman said anti-aircraft artillery shot down what was an unidentified aircraft that entered its airspace at a very low altitude and high speed.

While on fire, the jet fell into the sea 10 kilometers, or more than six miles, from the shore of the town of Um Al-Tuyoor, the spokesman said.

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On Saturday, Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a military spokesman as saying "the target turned out to be a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian airspace and was dealt with according to laws observed in such cases."

Turkish President Abdullah Gul acknowledged Saturday that the jet may have entered Syria's airspace, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"When you take in to account the speeds at which jet planes travel over the sea, it is routine for planes to go in and out of borders," the news agency quoted him as saying.

"It is something that happens without bad intentions and that happens due to the high speeds."

The U.N.'s Ban expressed his "deep concern" about the situation and the potential implications for the region during a phone call with Davutoglu on Saturday, the United Nations said.

He commended Turkey for the "restraint" it has shown.

The Turkish government called an emergency meeting after the warplane went missing near the border.

The Turkish military said the plane took off from Malatya Erhac Center and lost radar communication over the sea near Hatay province, which borders Syria.

The jet's disappearance could spark an international crisis. Relations between the two neighbors have already deteriorated amid the bloody uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Erdogan has repeatedly called on al-Assad to step down, and Turkey has withdrawn its diplomats from Damascus.

Davutoglu pointedly refused to express support for al-Assad on Sunday, saying Turkey stands with "the Syrian people."

"This tension is not between Turkey and the Syrian people. There is a regime in Syria which oppresses its people," he said.

However, Gul suggested the two countries were still liaising despite their differences.

"We pulled out representatives from Syria because it was not safe. This does not mean we are not in contact with them (the Syrians)," he said, according to Anatolia.

More than 30,000 Syrian refugees have spilled onto Turkish soil, and Turkey is hosting a number of Syrian opposition groups.

CNN's Ivan Watson and journalist Gül Tüysüz contributed to this report.

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