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Turkish FM: President Assad’s statements on Turkish aircraft accidentally shot down by Syria are wrong

Türkiye Materials 4 July 2012 13:59 (UTC +04:00)
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s statements that Syrian armed forces shot down a Turkish military aircraft mistaking it for an Israeli one are wrong, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday, CNN Turk TV channel reported.
Turkish FM: President Assad’s statements on Turkish aircraft accidentally shot down by Syria are wrong

Azerbaijan, Baku, July 4 / Trend A. Taghiyeva /

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's statements that Syrian armed forces shot down a Turkish military aircraft mistaking it for an Israeli one are wrong, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday, CNN Turk TV channel reported.

"We have records proving that Syria knew that the plane belonged to Turkey," Davutoglu said.

The Minister said that Syria has deliberately shot down a Turkish aircraft. The second Turkish plane sent the next day in search for missing pilots was also shot down by the Syrian side.
"Assad's statements that a Turkish aircraft used the route previously used by Israeli planes are also wrong. Why was no Israeli military plane shot down up till now?" Davutoglu said.

Turkey has started transporting military equipment to the border with Syria since last Tuesday after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Bashar al-Assad's regime is a threat to his country's security.

Erdogan's statement appeared after Syria said that it hit the Turkish aircraft over its territorial waters after invading its airspace. However, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the plane was shot down in international airspace and wreckage fell into Syrian territorial waters.

The Turkish reconnaissance aircraft RF-4E which took off on Friday from an Erhach airbase in Malatya province in south-eastern Turkey, disappeared from radar screens at about noon local time in the Mediterranean Sea to the south-east of the province of Hatay bordering on Syria.

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