Turkey may ask NATO for strong response to Syria’s downing of jet

June 26, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times

BEIRUT

Turkey hinted that it would ask its NATO allies to consider Syria’s downing of a Turkish jet to be an attack on the entire alliance, as it struggles to craft a response tough enough to satisfy an outraged public at home while trying to avoid war.

On the eve of today’s NATO meeting called by Turkey to discuss the incident, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said in the Turkish capital that “this action will not go unpunished and will have consequences.”

Turkey is to present its version of events under NATO’s Article 4, which allows for consultations if a member fears threats to its security or territorial integrity.

But the deputy prime minister said Ankara would call on NATO to consider the matter under the more robust terms of Article 5, the collective self-defense arrangement that regards an attack against one member as an attack against all.

And, as the gap widened between each country’s version of how and where the Turkish F4 Phantom jet was shot down off the Syrian coast, Arinc charged that Syrian batteries also opened fire on a Turkish search-and-rescue plane that was dispatched to find the plane’s two missing pilots.

Analysts said there is little prospect of NATO’s seriously contemplating military action against Syria when so many of its members — including the United States — have warned against foreign intervention in Syria’s ongoing civil strife.

Arinic also sought to dampen any prospect of Turkish military retaliation.

“We have no intention of going to war with anyone,” he said after a seven-hour Cabinet meeting.

Some diplomats close to the discussions said Turkish authorities are considering several retaliatory moves against Syria, including new economic sanctions.