Buffer zone may appear on Turkey-Syria border

Turkey is negotiating with U.S. and NATO to create a buffer zone on the border with Syria. To this end, Turkey has been drawing up military equipment to the border for several days, a senior official at the U.S. Department of Defense told Turkish Vatan newspaper.

The official said that Turkey has also demanded NATO member countries to create no-fly zone over Syria.

In turn, an unnamed Turkish diplomat, directly engaged in Syrian crisis issue, confirmed that creating of no-fly zone over Syria is really being discussed.

Turkey began to draw up military equipment to the border with Syria on Tuesday after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that Bashar al-Assad's regime is a threat to Turkish security.

Erdogan's statement came after Syria said it shot down the F4 jet because it was flying over Syrian territorial waters. However, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the F4 jet was shot down in international airspace and its wreckage fell into Syrian territorial waters.

A Turkish Air Force F-4 jet departing on Friday from the Erhac airbase in the Province of Malatya disappeared from radar screens half an hour after take-off in airspace over the Mediterranean Sea areas of Hatay province's south-east border with Syria.


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