EU ministers call on Turkey to show restraint over Syria incident

PanARMENIAN.Net - European Union foreign ministers called on Monday, June 25, for a calm response after Turkey accused Syria of shooting down one of its military reconnaissance jets, saying they would increase pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reported.

"We're very concerned about what's happened and very concerned for the family of the two pilots who are missing," said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. "We will be obviously looking to Turkey to be restrained in its response."

The ministers were meeting in Luxembourg for a regular conference, a day before a scheduled NATO meeting to discuss how to react to the incident, which Turkey says occurred in international airspace and without warning.

The ministers added one person and six companies and other entities to a sanctions list, an EU official said. So far, the EU has imposed asset freezes and visa bans on more than 100 people responsible for or associated with the violent repression against Syria's civilian population, and an asset freeze on 43 entities.