Turkey has no doubts that a Syrian passenger plane forced to land Oct. 10 in Ankara by Turkish authorities was illegally transporting material that was subsequently seized by officials, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said while failing to disclose the nature of the material, Hurriyet reports.
“You load military material aboard a civilian plane in violation of international law and, by assuming that – if it is appropriate to say so – we will ‘buy’ it and that we will not be able to see it, you then attempt to transport it over us. Then we land that plane,” Davutoğlu said in an interview aired on Bugün TV late yesterday.
However, the interview was not live, so Davutoğlu’s remarks cannot be interpreted as a response to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s remarks in which he said Russia was expecting an official statement from Turkey stating that the plane, which was en route from Moscow to Damascus, was not carrying weapons or ammunition.
