‘Turkey must apologize to Syria’

“The Turkish government has no act but to apologize to the Syrian government for violating the Syrian sovereign airspace,” said Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs, in an interview with Press TV on Wednesday.

On June 22, Syria said its air defense forces shot down a Turkish F-4 Phantom in the Syrian airspace “according to the laws that govern such situations.” The warplane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on June 26 that Ankara would retaliate “with determination” and take the “necessary steps by determining the time, place and method by itself.”

He made the remarks a day after Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said in a press conference in Damascus that the Turkish warplane “violated Syrian airspace, and in turn Syrian air defenses fired back and the plane crashed inside Syrian territorial waters.”

The political analyst also told Press TV that for the Turkish government to “threaten Syria over the downing of a plane that was violating international law seems to be odd.”

Ahmed said the Syrian government should file a “complaint with the United Nations regarding this violation of border sovereignty.”

Also on June 26, the North Atlantic Council, which is the principal political decision-making body within NATO, met in Brussels upon a request from Ankara to discuss the issue of the Turkish aircraft.

“I believe that the Turkish government is trying to bring NATO into the mix,” Ahmed said.

“If there is a war between the Turks and the Syrians, or between Turkey and NATO on one hand and the Syrian government on the other hand, the whole region will probably be in flame.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a meeting of the new government on June 26 that the country was in a “real situation of war.”

“When one is in a state of war, all our policies and capabilities must be used to secure victory,” Assad stated.

HSN/JR

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