World Press on Turkish-Syrian relations (June 26, 2012)

Hurriyet published an article by Semih Idiz devoted to the recent Turkish-Syrian scandal.  "The downing of a Turkish jet by Syria in what Damascus claims was its airspace has now made the whole Syria debacle for Turkey that much more confusing. The Turkish public – with not a little egging on by the media – is clamoring for a reprisal against Damascus. This makes matters that much more difficult for the Erdoğan government, since it is not clear what would satisfy the public short of a strike against Syria," the article reads. "Syria is trying to downplay the whole thing, and is even giving the impression that it is apologetic, maintaining that it did not know that the jet that had entered its airspace was Turkish. Ankara has, however, indicated that it is not buying that argument and says the strike was a premeditated provocation," the author says. "Whether it was or not may never be known. But what we do know at this stage is that the Syrian issue has taken on a completely different meaning for Turkey now, and it is not clear how things will play out," he concludes.

A recent article by Mehmet Ali Birand was devoted to the same issue. The author believes that the downing of the plane was an accident. "Why would Syria provoke Turkey? Al-Assad knows very well how sensitive we are about these incidents and that we are able to inflict major damage on them. He can imagine that a war with Turkey would also fuel the domestic opposition.
When seen like this, maybe we should consider the possibility that the incident was an accident. Let’s not forget, the history of the Syrian army is full of numerous wrong orders like this and misunderstandings caused by stray bullets," he says.

Another opinion was expressed by Murat Yetkin. It's impossible to hide an attack in the today's world, where every nation has powerful radar systems that can see any attack. This is especially true for the Middle East, where the situation is always tense and countries prefer to keep an eye on each other.