Makdessi pointed out that official correspondence with Turkey on Sunday clarified the details of the incident in response to the Turkish allegations that what happened was a Syrian aggression against Turkey, with the correspondence stating that on 11.40 AM on June 22nd, Syrian radar systems detected a flying object heading towards Syrian territories that performed a left turn towards the northeast and climbed down to a low altitude where it disappeared from the radars, only to appear suddenly at an altitude of 100 meters, 1 to 2 kilometers from the beach and Syrian land, and became suddenly visible to the naked eye.
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Makdessi pointed out that the Syrian anti-aircraft defense used a land-based anti-aircraft machinegun with a maximum range of 2.5 kilometers, and that the wreckage found by the Syrian authorities and delivered to the Turkish side with an official record shows holes in the tail-end of the plane which confirm that it was shot down by a ground-based machinegun, not missiles.
“Had the aircraft been over territorial waters, we would have used missiles, not a land-based anti-aircraft machinegun with a maximum range of 2.5 kilometers… all of this confirms the falsity of the allegations that the aircraft was shot down outside Syrian territorial waters,” he said.
In response to Davutoglu’s statement that the aircraft wasn’t alerted, Makedessi said that the Syrian anti-air defenses operate automatically in such cases, and that even if the unidentified aircraft was Syrian, it would have been shot down in the same manner, adding that that machinegun that shot down the plane isn’t equipped with radar; rather it had visual confirmation of it approaching it at a distance of 1 to 2 kilometers at an altitude of 100 meters and at a speed of 800 kph.
http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2012/06/25/427549.htm

Posted by: e695672 | Jun 25 2012 20:54 utc | 102