Turkey to ‘Take Necessary Measures’ after Shots Fired from Syria
Shots fired from Syria at a Syrian refugee camp inside Turkey are a "clear violation" of the common border between the two countries, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.
"It was a very clear violation of the border," Erdogan told reporters in Beijing, where he is on an official visit. "Obviously we will take the necessary measures," he was quoted as saying by the Turkish news agency Anatolia.
On the Turkish border Monday, shots fired from inside Syria wounded four Syrians and two Turkish staff working at a refugee camp in the first case of Syrian fire hitting people on Turkish soil.
Erdogan said his country will "use its rights as granted by international law," but did not specify whether Turkey was planning to establish buffer zones or open up humanitarian corridors into Syria, as floated by Turkish media.
The incident angered Ankara on the eve of a visit by international envoy Kofi Annan to the refugee camps along the border, while Washington said it condemned attacks on Syrian refugees in bordering countries.
Annan is expected at the Turkish-Syrian border Tuesday noon, as well as prominent U.S. senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will cut short the official China visit and fly home on Tuesday after Syrian forces fired the shots, a report said.
Davutoglu, who was accompanying Erdogan, will not join the Shanghai leg of the trip and instead return to Turkey later in the day, reported the Anatolia news agency.
Source: Agence France Presse
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