NEWS
February 18, 1993 | Associated Press
A general who led last year's campaign against separatist Kurds died Wednesday when his military plane went down in flames on the outskirts of Ankara. Interior Minister Ismet Sezgin told Parliament that the plane's twin engines failed. There was no immediate evidence of sabotage. Gen. Esref Bitlis, the commander of gendarme forces, was en route to Diyarbakir, the main city in the Kurdish-dominated southeast. Four other soldiers on the plane were killed.
NEWS
February 9, 1995 | From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A Turkish F-16 warplane crashed into the Aegean Sea after Greek fighters scrambled to drive it off as an intruder, a Greek air force spokesman said in Athens. No shots were fired. In Ankara, Turkey played down the incident and said the pilot was on a training flight in international airspace when his plane crashed due to a technical error. The pilot, who ejected before the crash, was picked up by the Greek coast guard after about 30 minutes in the water, the Greek spokesman said.
NEWS
October 22, 1989 | From Times staff and wire reports
Two Syrian MIG-21 jets intruded 12 miles into Turkish airspace and shot down a plane conducting a land survey, killing all five people on board, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Two fliers, a surveyor, a photographer and an official aboard the twin-propeller plane were killed, a spokesman said. In Damascus, Syria ordered an inquiry into the incident and offered condolences to the Turkish government.