TURKEY: Ankara residents do not support military retaliation against Syria for the shooting down of a military reconnaissance jet

Record ID: 280953

  • Title: TURKEY: Ankara residents do not support military retaliation against Syria for the shooting down of a military reconnaissance jet
  • Date: 26th June 2012
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF HURRIYET DAILY NEWS ANKARA REPRESENTATIVE, SERKAN DEMIRTAS, WORKING AT DESK
  • Embargoed: 11th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAATSHY03ZJPNIFGBOD90TLFJ0I
  • Story Text: The Turkish cabinet was scheduled to convene on Monday (June 25) after Turkey accused Syria of shooting down one of its military reconnaissance jets in international airspace without warning. Turkey also summoned a NATO meeting for Tuesday (June 25) to agree a response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
    Turkey's cabinet was due to meet on Monday to discuss Friday's incident, which lent a more threatening international dimension to the 16-month-old uprising against Assad. Britain called the attack over the eastern Mediterranean outrageous and said it stood ready to back strong action in the United Nations.
    Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was expected to make a statement to parliament on Tuesday (June 26) but analysts don't expect a military retaliation.
    "I do not expect any military retaliation, first of all, because this is not in line with the Turkish policy over Syria since the turmoil has broken in this neighbouring country. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu today made a speech and he said that Turkey will remain within the boundaries of international law - which we can understand that it is not going to be a sort of a military retaliation or taking revenge from Syria," said Serkan Demirtas from Hurriyet Daily News.
    Turkish newspapers were less restrained. "Murder at 13 miles" the Vatan newspaper's headline read. "It is not and accident. It's an attack" was the headline of the Radikal newspaper.
    Residents of Ankara welcomed Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's decision to invoke an article in the NATO alliance's founding treaty providing for urgent consultations if a member considered its security interests threatened.
    "Maybe it was an accident. They should have warned but they didn't. But it wouldn't be right to retaliate because of what they did," said Yilmaz Ali Saglam.
    "We should seek our rights in solidarity with the international community. We cannot declare war against them on our own. It's not possible. We should seek our rights within international laws and now the Turkish government has already been making contact with the United States, China, Russia and other countries such as Britain. What is necessary will be done by cooperating with NATO. We cannot go into a war with Syria just because a jet was shot down," Ferhat Taskan said.
    So far, Turkey has stopped short of explicitly threatening a military response. It has said it will formally consult its NATO allies under the alliance's Article Four, avoiding invoking the common defence clause under Article Five that could request other members support in retaliation.
    Turkey denies the jet mission had anything to do with the situation in Syria. The two countries initially cooperated in the search for the aircrew and wreckage in what appeared to be a deliberate strategy to avoid further escalation.
    Ankara says the aircraft was clearly marked as Turkish and Syrian claims that they did not know its nationality when they fired were not convincing.
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