Ankara calls for NATO meeting over downed plane

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — State television said Turkey has called for an extraordinary NATO meeting over the downing of its plane by Syria in international airspace.

TRT television reported Sunday that Turkey has sought the NATO meeting for Tuesday.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told State TV that Turkey would seek the meeting over article 4 of the NATO charter concerning Friday’s incident.

The article says member countries “will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened.”

Davutoglu said the plane had no “covert mission related to Syria,” and it was purely on a training flight to test Turkey’s radar capabilities. He said the plane entered Syrian airspace on Friday, but quickly left when warned by Turkey.

Davutoglu said the plane, an F-4, was shot down by Syria in “international airspace” several minutes after it left.

Syria on Saturday insisted the shooting down of the plane was “not an attack,” and that the plane had violated its airspace.

On Sunday, Turkish state TV said wreckage of the downed plane was found in the Mediterranean at a 1,000-meter depth.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.