AFP,  Istanbul, April 11, 2012 – Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday Turkey may invoke NATO’s article 5 to protect its border with Syria, after Syrian bullets hurt people on Turkish soil, Today’s Zaman newspaper said.
’NATO has a responsibility to protect Turkish borders,’ Erdogan told a group of reporters during a visit to China, noting that Turkey may invoke the article, which says an attack on a member constitutes an attack on all members.
Erdogan referred to shots recently fired from Syrian territory into Turkey, which wounded four Syrians and two Turks near a refugee camp in the first such incident since unrest erupted in Syria mid-March last year.
Following the incident, Erdogan said it was a ’very clear violation of the border’, in a speech he made from China.
According to witnesses who spoke with AFP two of the wounded Syrians died later.