Yesterday’s NATO meeting on Syria’s downing of a Turkish RF-4 Phantom reconnaissance jet Friday underscores the growing importance of Turkey and NATO for each other.
Syria claims that the shooting occurred when an unidentified jet made a low and threatening overflight deep in Syrian territory, while Turkey insists that Syria knew the plane was Turkish, and that it had already left Syrian air space when it was shot down.
The Turkish government decided to invoke Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which provides for urgent consultations if a member state considers its security interests threatened. It did not call for invoking Article 5, which calls for collective defensive actions to counter the threat.