NATO said it will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss Turkey’s claim that Syria shot down one of its warplanes in international airspace and not inside its own territory

NATO said it will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss Turkey's claim that Syria shot down one of its warplanes in international airspace and not inside its own territory, a spokesperson for the Atlantic Alliance said Tuesday.

"Turkey has requested consultations under Article 4" of NATO's founding treaty under which member countries can request a meeting if their security is threatened, NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said, adding that the meeting would take place on Tuesday.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Turkey's television on Sunday that an investigation by Ankara into the incident concluded that its plane was "shot down in international airspace, 13 nautical miles from Syria".

Davutoglu said the plane was shot down shortly after it had "momentarily violated Syrian airspace" but added that the unarmed plane, on a mission to test Turkey's radar defenses, had posed no threat to Syria at any time.

Turkey called for the NATO meeting early on Sunday: "We will bring this affair before public opinion and international law in the name of Turkey's honor."
  
Syria has acknowledged shooting down the F-4 phantom jet after it violated its airspace, but insists it only identified it as a Turkish fighter after the fact.
  
"What happened was an accident and not an assault as some like to say," Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdissi told the Al-Watan pro-government daily on Sunday. "Syria was merely exercising its right and sovereign duty and defence," he said. "There is no enmity between Syria and Turkey, but political tension (exists) between the two countries."