Turkey and U.S. Relations

BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhuanet)

Turkey says Syria downed its plane

Turkey says its air force jet that disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea Friday, was shot down by Syria.

After a two-hour security meeting led by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey issued a statement, saying the warplane was downed by Syrian forces and that the two Turkish pilots remain missing.

It says Turkey "will determinedly take necessary steps" in response, without saying what they would be. Erdogan said the plane went down in the Sea about 13 kilometers away from the Syrian town of Latakia.

Four Turkish gunboats and three helicopters are searching for the pilots and wreckage. The Turkish military says the plane disappeared from its radar.

Turkey and U.S. relations Wiki

Turkey – United States relations Difficulties faced by Greece after the war in quelling a communist rebellion, along with demands by the Soviet Union for military bases in the Turkish Straits, prompted the United States to declare the Truman Doctrine in 1947. The doctrine enunciated American intentions to guarantee the security of Turkey and Greece, and resulted in large scale U.S. military and economic support


This support manifested in the establishment of a clandestine stay behind army, denoted the "Counter-Guerrilla", under Operation Gladio. After participating with United Nations forces in the Korean War, Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952^.
The friendliness of Turkey towards the United States has declined markedly over the past five years. The decline of U.S.-Turkish relations is primarily a result of the United States' instigation of and action in the Iraq War. Turkey views the Iraq war as a significant threat because northern Iraq acts as a safe-haven for a Kurdish terrorist organisation, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Furthermore, Turkey views the destabilization of Iraq as a possible impetus for Kurds to claim their independence from Turkey, Iraq, and/or other Middle Eastern countries with significant Kurdish populations.