Turkish aircraft not shot down by Syria, probe revealsAugust 10, 2012 - 20:10 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - An investigation by Turkish authorities found no evidence that the Turkish reconnaissance aircraft that crashed on June 22 was shot down by Syrian air defense, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on Friday, August 10, RIA Novosti said. A Turkish Air Force reconnaissance aircraft RF-4E left on June 22 from the Erkhach Air Base in Turkey’s southeastern Malatya Province and disappeared from radar screens a half hour later while in Mediterranean Sea airspace on the western border of Syria and Turkey’s Hatay province. Syria initially said it fired at the Turkish aircraft after it unlawfully entered its territorial waters. Turkey, in turn, insisted the plane was shot down in international airspace and then its debris fell into Syrian territorial waters. In its Friday edition, Hurriyet said the detailed report rejected the possibility of any involvement of Syrian air defense, based on the chemical and physical analysis of 20 fragments of the crashed aircraft. The newspaper did not indicate whether the report pointed to a potential cause for the crash. On July 13, the General Staff of the Turkish armed forces said the plane was shot down by Syrian defense. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |