Turkey's air space has been violated 114 separate times so far this year but each instance was quickly resolved peacefully, the General Staff has said following Syria’s downing of a Turkish warplane for violating its airspace.

"We would have shot down 114 planes if every aircraft that violated a country's airspace were shot down without questioning," the General Staff said, according to daily Milliyet.

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According to radar traces provided by the chief of General Staff, the Turkish F-4 jet that was downed on June 22 was hit 13 nautical miles off the Syrian coast in international waters but crashed in Syrian territorial waters. The records show that the Turkish jet unintentionally violated Syrian airspace at 11:42 a.m. for five minutes, 16 minutes before contact was lost with the jet. At 11:44 a.m. Turkish radars informed the jet that it had entered Syrian airspace and told it to leave as soon as possible.

[link to www.hurriyetdailynews.com]


Ankara says Damascus ‘should pay’ for attack

[link to www.hurriyetdailynews.com]