Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan says, "Turkish armed forces engaged the helicopter after it violated our airspace and ignored repeated warnings to leave", Anadolu Agency reported.
Turkish armed forces applied rules of engagement on the Syrian army helicopter that violated Turkish airspace, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told journalists on Tuesday during a joint conference in capital Ankara with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
"After the helicopter ignored warnings, the rules of engagement were enforced and the armed forces did what was necessary," Erdogan said.
Turkish Deputy Premier Bulent Arinc had announced on Monday that Turkish fighter jets scrambled from the eastern province of Malatya shot down a Syrian army helicopter at 14:25 local time after it entered 2 km deep into Turkish territory in the south and ignored repeated warnings to leave.
Erdogan had earlier warned the Syrian government that Turkey would not tolerate any border violations by Syrian forces.