Turks go on a war footing with Syria

Guardian:

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has threatened Syriawith retaliation for the shooting down of a military jet, and warned that Turkish armed forces would respond to any Syrian encroachment on their joint border.

The warning from Ankara came as opposition activists reported 92 people killed across Syria and Russia signalled that it would take part in new diplomatic attempt to end the crisis. The UN's head of peacekeeping told the security council that monitors were still unable to operate because of the risks they faced.

Erdoğan described the downing of the reconnaissance plane on Friday as a deliberate and hostile act that would not go unanswered.

The rules of engagement for Turkish forces along the Syrian border had been changed so they would respond more forcefully to threats coming from Syria.

"Any military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria by posing a security risk and danger will be regarded as a threat and treated as a military target," Erdoğan said.

Ankara has accused Syrian gunners of targeting a Turkish search-and-rescue plane looking for survivors from the downed jet on Saturday. Turkish officials said the rescue plane had agreed its route with the Syrian authorities but came under fire nevertheless, causing the rescue mission to be suspended. On Tuesday morning the prime minister claimed Syrian helicopters had violated Turkish airspace five times recently without a Turkish response.

Erdoğan suggested any further violation would be met with force, adding that any Syrian military element seen approaching the Turkish border would be regarded as a threat.

... 

What Turkey has not done is make a request under Article Five of the NATO charter that would trigger a response.  That may yet happen and Syria is in a much more delicate position at this time.   Assad has said his country is at war, but it is still mainly with his own people.

One of the misperceptions of the shoot down of the Turkish plane is that it somehow speaks to the ability of Syrian defense systems.  The plane in question was an old F-4.  The US had several of them shot down during the Vietnam war.  (See page 25 at the link for losses.  We lost more F-4s than any other aircraft.) While they are a good looking plane, they are not nearly as agile as their replacements in the US arsenal.  The plane was also not in an attack mode at the time too.  Armed with HARM missiles that hone in on enemy radar they are capable of taking out the Syrian air defense system.

It should also be noted that during the Israeli attack on Syria's nuclear program, they were able to spoof those defense systems, make a clean attack and return to Israel without any resistance.