Hürriyet Daily News reports: A Turkish jet shot down by Syria on June 22 was done so without warning in international waters, Turkey has said, adding that it was consulting with NATO allies on a possible reaction.

According to sources, the discussions could involve invoking Article 4 of the alliance’s charter, which calls for consultations among member countries when the security of any parties is involved.

“Our plane was shot down in international airspace, 13 nautical miles from Syria,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told TRT television yesterday.

After a short, unintentional violation of Syrian airspace, the plane returned to Turkish airspace after being warned by its own radar that it strayed over the air border, the minister said, adding that Syria shot down the plane after it had returned to international airspace.

“The plane did not show any sign of hostility toward Syria and was shot down about 15 minutes after having momentarily violated Syrian airspace,” he said, adding that Syria was trying to link the two incidents.

Dismissing Syria’s allegations that it did not know the plane was Turkish, the minister said Turkey had intercepted radio communications from the Syria side suggesting that they knew it was a Turkish aircraft.

“We have both radar info and Syria’s radio communications,” Davutoğlu said, adding that there was no warning from Syria before the attack.

“The Syrians knew full well that it was a Turkish military plane and the nature of its mission,” he said.

“The aircraft did not have arms and was flying on a training mission to conduct a national radar system test for national security over recent [developments] along the Mediterranean coast,” he said, adding that it was alone, had no hidden identity and had no mission to gather any kind of information.