| Syrian Foreign ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdissi insisted on Monday that the Turkish plane, which was downed by Syria, violated Damascus’ sovereignty, as he stressed that his country’s airspace, territory and waters are sacred for the Syrian army.  "The Turkish warplane violated Syrian airspace, and in turn Syrian air defenses fired back and the plane crashed inside Syrian territorial waters,” Makdissi he told a news conference. "What happened is a gross violation of Syrian sovereignty,” he said, adding that "Turkey itself has already attested that the plane violated Syrian airspace." “The Syrian response was an act of defense of our sovereignty carried out by anti-aircraft machinegun which has a maximum range of 2.5 km,” state news agency quoted Makdissi as saying. NATO is to hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Tuesday over the incident at the request of member nation Turkey. "If the goal of the meeting is to calm the situation and promote stability, we wish it success," Makdissi said. But "if the goal of the meeting is aggression, we say that Syrian airspace, territory and waters are sacred for the Syrian army, just as Turkish airspace, territory and waters are sacred for the Turkish army." However, the FM spokesman stressed that Syria was committed to good neighborly relations with Turkey and Syria was not the one who harmed the bilateral relations, adding that Syria has been applying the principle of reciprocity and has hold no hostility towards the Turkish people. "The search and rescue operations for the wreckage of the plane are still underway in cooperation between the Syrian and Turkish sides," Makdessi said, adding: "We have asked the Turkish side to form a Turkish military committee to come and inspect the scene but we did not receive any answer." | ||||
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