Two Turkish F-16s shot down a Syrian military helicopter on Monday, in a move that could further strain tensions between the two border-sharing neighbors.
The Turkish government said they hit the Syrian Mi-17 helicopter after it crossed into Turkish airspace between the southern Hatay province and Syria just before 2:30 p.m., Reuters reported.
"No one, from now on, will dare to violate Turkish borders in any way" Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Paris, after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, along with their French counterpart Laurent Fabius. "We will defend our borders and our people's security to the end."
Video footage depicted the warplane spiraling downward - a ball of fire, trailed by a line of black smoke - less than a mile into Syrian territory.
Turkey maintained that its forces had kept an eye on the helicopter from 26 nautical miles away, and repeatedly warned the aircraft to stay back until it was around five miles away.
Syria stated their aircraft flew into Turkish airspace by accident, after getting lost on a reconnaissance mission, the New York Times reported. Damascus called Turkey's reaction "hasty," and accused their former ally of trying to intensify strained relations in the region.
"The hasty response from the Turkish side, especially as the aircraft was on its way back and was not charged with any combat missions, is proof of the true intentions of Erdogan's government toward Syria to increase tensions and escalate the situation on the border between the two countries," the Syrian government reported in a statement released by state-run news agency SANA.
Turkey has ramped up defense forces along the 560-mile-long border it shares with Syria, and has increasingly called for military intervention in Syria, while growing frustrated Western hesitation, Reuters reported.
Over the past four years, Turkey and Syria's relationship has gotten progressively tense, as the civil war in Damascus has forced hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees to flee into neighboring countries. When the two nations were at the height of their reparations with one another in 2009, the Turkish government lifted visa requirements for Syrian nationals, in addition to introducing plans for investments and a free trade zone. But the borderlands soon became a center of refugee overcrowding and smuggling, and has created issues between Turkish citizens and the Syrians seeking refuge in the neighboring country.
The war in Syria has also added fuel to sectarian issues with Turkey's government, TIME reported. Earlier this year, a car bombing believed to be executed by Syrian intelligence agents killed 53 people living in Turkish border town Reyhanli.
