Turkey warns of military reaction against Syria

ISTANBUL - Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday that Ankara will do what is necessary if Syria again violates its border.

"We will do what needs to be done if our border is violated again," he told reporters while he had a bilateral meeting with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on the Syrian crisis in Istanbul's Hilton Hotel.

The Turkish official made the warning amid continuing tension between Turkey and Syria that has been punctuated by a number of recent incidents. Turkey intercepted a Syrian passenger plane from Moscow to Damascus on Wednesday and claimed to have confiscated a cargo of radar equipment, which sparked a new war of words.

Davutoglu noted that a violation of Turkey's border was a violation of NATO's borders. "In this context, we expect the support of our allies."

He said Germany was one of the countries from which Turkey expects support.

Westerwelle said Turkey was within its international rights when it forced a Syrian passenger plane to land in Ankara Wednesday for suspicions that it was transporting weapons from Russia to Syria.

The German minister called for calm and restraint ahead of his meetings, saying that "it is important that no one pours oil on the fire".

Syria said it was ready to set up a joint committee to oversee the security on the border, as Turkey stepped up warnings of reprisals for any further cross-border shelling by Syria, such as the one that killed five Turks on October 3.

On Friday, Turkey bolstered military presence on the border with Syria by deploying 250 tanks and 55 jets of various models after a Syrian military helicopter bombed the Syrian border town of Azmarin, where intense fighting was on for days between Syrian government forces and rebels.

Fighting along Turkey's 910-km border with Syria has repeatedly spilled over into Turkish territory in the past week, with the Turkish army responding in kind to gunfire and mortar shells fired from Syria.

Turkish Chief of Staff General Necdet Ozel said Wednesday his troops would respond "with greater force" if the shells continued to land on Turkish soil.