Ankara - Turkey branded its former ally Syria "a
clear and imminent threat", on Tuesday as its Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan vented his fury over the downing of a Turkish fighter
jet.
In his most outspoken criticism of the Damascus regime,
Erdogan vowed to retaliate against the "heinous act" and promised a
change of military attitude to any Syrian officer approaching the common
border.
"The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces
have changed given this new development," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan told parliament following the shooting down of F-4 Phantom jet
on Friday. The two pilots are still missing.
Any risk posed by
Syria on the Turkish border will be "considered a threat and treated as a
military target", he said in a jam-packed room of lawmakers who
frequently interrupted the address with applause.
Erdogan said
his government would retaliate "with determination" and take what he
called the "necessary steps by determining the time, place and method by
itself".
The prime minister said Turkey's military jet violated
the Syrian airspace for a short time and "by mistake" and repeated that
it was unarmed, flying solo when it was shot down by Syria "without a
single warning".
114 violations
"We did not receive
a single warning note from Syria [regarding airspace violation]...They
acted without warning. This is a hostile act," Erdogan said.
Erdogan
said that Turkish airspace had been violated 114 times by military
aircraft from different countries, including Syria, since 1 January
2012.
"Syrian helicopters violated our airspace five times. These
were short-term violations," to which Turkey issued the necessary
warnings, Erdogan noted.
"This latest development shows that the
Assad regime has become a clear and imminent threat to the security of
Turkey, as well as for its own people," he added.
Erdogan broke
with former friend and ally Assad, whom he called "a bloody dictator",
after unrest that erupted mid-March last year met a bloody response from
Damascus, sending more than 33 000 refugees into Turkey.
"Turkey will support Syrian people in every way until they get rid of the bloody dictator and his gang," he said on Tuesday.