Updated on
Summary Turkey deployed anti-aircraft guns and other weapons alongside its border with Syria on Thursday.
The state television reported days after the downing of a Turkish military jet by Syrian forces heightened the tensions between the two countries.A small convoy of military trucks, towing anti-aircraft guns, entered into a military outpost in the border village of Guvecci, which faces a Syrian military outpost across the border and where Syrian forces and rebels clashed in recent months, TRT television footage showed.Several anti-aircraft guns have also been deployed elsewhere alongside the border. Some trucks were seen carrying self-propelled multiple rocket launchers.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Tuesday that any Syrian military unit approaching its border will be treated as a direct threat. Turkeys NATO allies have expressed solidarity with Ankara and condemned the Syrian attack but made no mention of any retaliatory action against Syria.The deployment came before President Abdullah Gul chaired a National Security Council meeting on Thursday, TRT said. The meeting, attended by Cabinet members and the militarys top brass, is expected to focus on tensions with Syria.Turkey and Syria had cultivated close ties before the Syrian revolt began in March 2011, but since then Turkey has become one of the strongest critics of Syrias regime and repeatedly called on Syrias President Bashar Assad to step down as 33,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey.Turkey is also hosting civilian opposition groups as well as hundreds of army defectors who are affiliated with the Free Syrian Army and collect food and other supplies to deliver to comrades on smuggling routes.
