NATO countries have expressed solidarity with Turkey on Wednesday during an emergency meeting, convened in Brussels after the Syrian shell barrage that killed five people in Turkey, announced a diplomatic source.
During the NATO meeting in Brussels, “all allies condemned” the incident “and expressed a strong message of support for Turkey,” which is one of the 28 members of NATO, according to the same source. NATO also urged Syria to “end the flagrant violation of international law”. “NATO require the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally,” it said in a statement released by NATO at the end of the meeting.
“We stand with our Turkish ally” reads a White House statement. Hillary Clinton called Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkish Foreing Minister and expressed support for Turkey in the UN Security Council.
Turkey has bombed on Wednesday targets located on Syrian territory in retaliation to the shell attacks from Syria that killed five civilians in a village on the border with Turkey, said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“This attack was the subject of immediate retaliation by our armed forces (…), which bombed, along the border, targets identified on radar,” Erdogan said in a statement. “Turkey will never leave unpunished such challenges from a Syrian regime that threatens our national security, respecting international law and rules of action,” he added.
The Premier also announced that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had a meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and that “he decided that NATO Council will meet very soon.”
The shells launched from Syrian territory hit a Turkish border town, Akçakale, killing five civilians and wounding about another ten, according to a report presented by the Governor of Sanliurfa province, Celalettin Guvenc.
This incident between Turkey and Syria is the worst since the one in which Syrian antiaircraft defense shot down in June a Turkish military aircraft. There were also cross border shootings that resulted in Turkish people dead.
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