Turkey issues border warning to Syria

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told parliament that Syrian troops would be seen as a military threat if they approached Turkey's borders.

The F-4 Phantom jet was shot down by Syria on 22 June before crashing into the eastern Mediterranean.  Its two pilots are still missing.

While Syria insists that the F-4 Phantom jet was brought down inside Syrian airspace, Erdogan argued that: "A short-term border violation can never be a pretext for an attack."  He said that the Turkish jet was on a training flight, testing Turkey's radars in the eastern Mediterranean.

“The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces have changed given this new development," said Erdogan. “Any military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria by posing a security risk and danger will be regarded as a threat and treated as a military target.”

Turkish officials have said that while the jet strayed into Syrian airspace by mistake last Friday, it was quickly warned to change course by Turkish authorities and was only 1.6km inside international airspace when it was shot down.

Syria has claimed it was unaware that the plane belonged to Turkey and had been protecting its airspace against an unknown intruder.

Turkey described the shooting down of its F-4 reconnaissance plane as a "hostile act by the Syrian authorities against Turkey's national security" and "a serious threat to peace and security in the region" in a letter to the UN Security Council. The letter also says that intercepted radio communication shows that Syrian units were fully aware of the circumstances of the flight.

Following a Nato meeting, secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen gave a statement in which the alliance's 28 members said the shooting down of the plane was "unacceptable".  "We stand together with Turkey in the spirit of strong solidarity," he said.