Turkey: NATO should view Syria as attacking it • ANKARA, turkey — Turkey said Monday it would push NATO to consider Syria’s downing of a Turkish jet as an attack on the military alliance. The announcement came on the eve of a meeting by NATO’s governing body to discuss the incident. Despite frustration among many NATO countries over the conflict in Syria, where the opposition says President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on a popular uprising has killed 14,000 people, it’s unlikely the military alliance will take armed action.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc also said for the first time that Syrian forces had opened ground fire on a CASA search and rescue plane shortly after the downing but did not say if that plane was hit.
Arinc said Turkey has a right to “retaliate” against what he called a “hostile act,” but he added, “We have no intention of going at war with anyone.” The Associated Press
