ANKARA, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - The NATO military alliance devised a contingency plan for Turkey after the first uprisings erupted in neighboring Syria, Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz told journalists Tuesday.
"If there is an attack, NATO's joint defense mechanisms will be activated," the Harriyet daily cited the minister as saying.
Turkey's top military commander said Ankara asked NATO to map out a plan to defend the country as soon as the first reports about Syrian unrest transpired in the south, adding the roadmap was to explore as many possible scenarios of anti-Turkish aggression as possible.
In the event of an attack from the Syrian territory, the 28 member-state bloc would fulfill Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, the minister said, reiterating a remark by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg who said in Poland on Monday that "NATO will be there if there is any spillover, any attacks on Turkey as a consequence of the violence we see in Syria."
Commenting on the ongoing siege of the Syrian border town Kobani by Islamic State insurgents, Ismet Yilmaz said Turkey was acting within international laws and "with minimum damage."
IS militants have been laying siege to Kobani, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish region bordering Turkey, for the last three weeks, killing more than 200, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Kurds living in Turkey took to the streets on Monday night to protest against Turkey's perceived inactivity in the face of IS violence.
