Turkish rescue plane also attacked by Syria

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

“(In addition to) what we have seen in the media, we have been informed that Syrian forces opened fire on another Turkish plane (which had come to the region) as part of the search and rescue operation,” sources told the Daily News on the condition of anonymity.

This information was shared with the ambassadors and defense attachés of the Arab League, European Union and NATO countries during a briefing at the Foreign Ministry yesterday. The Turkish search and rescue plane immediately left Syrian airspace after the shots. Local eyewitnesses reported a second plane leaving the same region over the Mediterranean Sea the afternoon of June 22, which could possibly be this Turkish search and rescue plane.

Amid sound and fury over the shooting down of the Turkish jet, there was also another row between Turkey and Syria on the coordination of the search and rescue operation. The Syrian side offered to conduct a joint operation but attached certain conditions. One of the conditions was that Syria wanted to seize the Turkish jet and take the Turkish pilots for the completion of necessary procedures as they had been in Syrian territorial waters. The Turkish side strongly rejected the idea and informed Syrian forces that Turkey would carry out its own search and rescue operations and would not leave its pilots and jet in the hands of Syria. For this reason Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu denied that there was a joint search and rescue operation with Syria in his remarks yesterday. “This cannot be described as a joint operation. We are in coordination with the Syrians as this operation is being carried out in their territorial waters,” Davutoğlu said. The search and rescue operation is expected to end tomorrow.

In the same briefing, Turkey told foreign ambassadors that Syrian air forces had violated the Turkish border five times in recent months but had not been intercepted as these had not been considered “hostile” moves. The Turkish side implemented rules of engagement in these cases but did not respond to them in the way Syria did to the Turkish jet.


http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/PrintNews.aspx?PageID=383&NID=23957

Some comments from the same Turkish paper


Ahmetcan Caglayan
Turkey intercepted radio and radar data from Syrians, the evidence shows the Syrians knew it was a Turkish jet, it was on international airspace, and they knew the jet wasn't hostile. According to an eyewitness, the Syrian forces kidnapped the pilots which is a possibilty. Al Assad and Syria lie all the time, it's time for payback.

Selim Bisevac
Just like when they bomb and torture children , they mistake them for armed gangs... What a load of lies and trash statement. This regime needs to be taken out , shooting down an unarmed plane is their style - cowards!