Ankara - Turkey's foremost military commander has said that an "undeclared state of war" exists between his country and Syria, a Turkish newspaper reported yesterday. "There is an undeclared state of war," the daily Sabah quoted Mr Huseyin Kivrikoglu, Chief of Turkey's General Staff, as saying at a reception in Ankara late on Thursday. "Turkey has been patient, but our patience has limits," he added.
The air force chief, Mr Ilhan Kilic, told reporters at the reception that a crisis committee in the prime minister's office
was dealing with the situation. The air force was "ready for conflict", Hurriyet quoted the air force chief as saying.
Hurriyet reported that air force units in Diyarbakir and Malatya had been placed on red alert and that flights in the border area had been increased.
Turkey accuses Damascus of supporting the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party in its separatist war against Ankara, a claim Syria denies. The two countries are also at odds over Turkey's military co-operation with Israel. Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Italy after Kurdish exiles were permitted to hold a two-day meeting within the parliament building in Rome, a source close to the Turkish Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
A Turkish official had already warned that the incident affects relations between the two NATO allies.