As some Turkish politicians branded the downing of the plane an “act of war”, a Syrian government spokesman said the aircraft had been an “unidentifiable object” and that the Syrian military had only realised later that it was a Turkish F-4 jet.
“We do not want any tension with Ankara,” said Jihad Makdissi, Syria’s foreign affairs spokesman, in a statement to a Turkish news website on Saturday. “Hopefully, we can transcend this issue swiftly. All I can say is that the announcement I have made is Syria’s official stance; there is in no way any animosity felt towards Turkey and the Turkish public.”
The Turkish governnment, which has promised a “decisive” response to the incident, is expected to make a further statement on Sunday on the matter, pending the outcome of further inquiries by both countries. In an interview on Saturday, the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, conceded that the Turkish plane may have crossed into the country’s airspace at the time. But he said there was no reason for the Syrian military to have interpreted the move as a hostile act.
“It is routine for jet fighters to sometimes fly in and out over (national) borders ... when you consider their speed over the sea,” Mr Gul told the Anatolia news agency. “These are not ill-intentioned things but happen beyond control due to the jets’ speed.”
The loss of the Turkish Air Force plane on Friday has left Western powers fearing that Turkey, which has already angered Damascus by sheltering refugees from the Syrian violence, could end up getting dragged into Syria’s escalating civil war.
Mr Gul said: “Whatever is necessary will be done.” It was not clear if he was suggesting military retaliation, increased sanctions against Syria or other possible steps. But Faruk Celik, Turkey’s Labor and Social Security Minister, said Turkey would retaliate “either in the diplomatic field or give other types of response.”
“Even if we assume that there was a violation of Syria’s airspace - though the situation is still not clear - the Syrian response cannot be to bring down the plane,” Mr Celik said. “The incident is unacceptable,” he said. “Turkey cannot endure it in silence.”
The deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, added that contrary to reports, the plane was not a fighter jet but a reconnaissance aircraft.
The Turkish press has reacted relatively cautiously to the incident. While some headlines said: “Damascus playing with Fire” and “They will pay for it”, the overall coverage was not as angry as it sometimes is in responding to attacks by Kurdish rebels in south-east Turkey.
Soli Ozel, a columnist at the Haberturk newspaper and Professor of International Relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University, said it was unlikely that the incident would be declared an act of war and that the Turkish government was seeking a way to avoid a further escalation of the crisis.
“If you deem it is an act of war you will go to war. That is why I do not think they will deem it an act of war. There are plenty of people who have written in media that we should retaliate and attack, but I don’t really think that this is the mood in the country.”
Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus in March as relations between the two countries deteriorated over the crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad on Syria’s Arab Spring protests. In late May, Ankara also expelled Syria’s diplomats. There is, however, still a Turkish consulate operating in Aleppo.
On Saturday, Syrian army forces battled rebels and shelled neighbourhoods in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, killing at least 28 people, opposition activists said. The victims, who included three women and several children, were mostly civilians killed when shells hit their houses in the city’s Old Airport and al-Hamidya districts, a source at a city hospital told Reuters.
Loyalist forces have lost control of parts of the surrounding Deir al-Zor province, which borders Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland as alliances between President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling elite and Sunni tribes have collapsed.
The fighting came as President Assad issued a decree to form a new government, shaking up many cabinet posts but keeping the heads of the interior, defence and foreign ministries.
The reappointment of defence minister, Daoud Rajha, will quash widespread rumours that he had been killed by a rebel hit squad.
