Buoyed by support from its NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
allies, Turkey escalated its warnings against Syria on Tuesday, even as some American and allied officials privately raised questions about whether the Turkish warplane shot down by Syrian air defenses -- provoking the denunciation -- had been on a spy mission.
In response to the downing, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey warned Syrian forces to stay clear of their troubled border or face a military response to any perceived threat. Mr. Erdogan's bellicose tone came as ambassadors from the Atlantic alliance, seeking to avoid a wider conflict, held emergency talks in Brussels at Turkey's behest.
After the meeting, the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the alliance considered Syria's actions in shooting down the Turkish warplane to be "unacceptable."
While the American and allied officials emphasized that some intelligence reports flowing in since the downing last Friday were murky and often conflicting, they said a preliminary analysis of the available data suggested that there may have been more to the aircraft's mission that just a routine training exercise to test Turkey's air defenses.
They pointed to several unanswered questions about the episode, including why, given the tensions between the two countries, Turkey was flying an unarmed reconnaissance plane so close to the Syrian border, where the aircraft was struck, and whether it received any warnings to leave Syrian airspace.
Syria maintains that the plane was brought down by antiaircraft fire well within its airspace. But Turkey says the plane was attacked over international waters after straying briefly into Syrian space.
American military and NATO officials said they were examining these claims as well as radar tracks and other classified information to better understand what happened.
But the officials said they were loath to publicly challenge an ally's version of the downing, which the White House and the State Department have condemned as unjustified and have cited as an example of the recklessness of the security forces loyal to
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
of Syria.
"On a political level, NATO is taking the Turks at their word," said a senior United States official who has reviewed classified reports of the episode.
One senior NATO diplomat said that even if the Turks were spying, it should not alter the international reaction. "When this happens between neighboring countries, you give a warning and then send up interceptors," said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. "You don't just shoot down the plane."