“We as Turkey and the Turkish nation have no intention of attacking. We are just making provisions to stave off all threats to our unity and integrity, I mean for defense. We have never had an eye on the soil of any country. We have never had a hostile stance towards any country,” Erdoğan said on Wednesday during a ceremony held to introduce Turkey's first domestically produced training jet, the Primary and Basic Trainer Aircraft HÜRKUŞ.
“We respond to hostile behaviors, attacks and threats against us with all our strength, also with power and inspiration from our history, and we never hesitate to do whatever is necessary,” he added.
His remarks follow his warning to Syria on Tuesday that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have been given instructions to treat any approaching Syrian military units as a threat. Erdoğan said it is now clear that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime “has become a clear and present danger to Turkey's security.”
“The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces have changed,” Erdoğan said at a Justice and Development Party (AK Party) meeting in Parliament. Without naming the Syrian administration, Erdoğan also reiterated his Tuesday warnings on Wednesday, saying his country will not “abstain from teaching and putting in their place those who test Turkey's greatness, criminal gang states who have lost legitimacy in the eyes of their people and those terrorizing their own people.”
Turkey has long criticized the Syrian regime for its deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests, but the dispute took a new turn when Syrian forces shot down an unarmed Turkish jet which Ankara said was on a solo mission to test domestic radar systems. Syria described its shooting down of the Turkish F-4 jet as an act of self-defense, and Turkey while saying the incident would “not go unpunished,” emphasized that it does not intend to go to war with Syria.