"Turkey supports terrorists killing Syrians: Assad" (IRIB-Iran)

This is an interesting escalation in rhetoric:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says Turkey supports terrorists who commit atrocities against the people in Syria.

“Turkey has supplied all logistic support to the terrorists who have killed our people,” Assad said in an interview with the Turkish Cumhuriyet daily published on Wednesday.

“Turkey’s desire to interfere in Syria’s internal affairs has put it in a position which unfortunately makes it a party to all the bloody activities” in Syria, he added.

On June 3, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan censured the government of President Assad over its approach to reforms in the Arab country.

“I have not seen him (Assad) approach reforms with a democratic understanding,” Erdogan said.

The Turkish prime minister also stated that the Syrian president is taking “an autocratic approach” to the issues inside Syria.

The development comes days after Syria said on June 22 that its air defense forces shot down a Turkish F-4 Phantom in the Syrian airspace “according to the laws that govern such situations.” The warplane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.

However, Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said in a press conference in Damascus on June 25 that the Turkish warplane “violated Syrian airspace, and in turn Syrian air defenses fired back and the plane crashed inside Syrian territorial waters.”

On June 26, Erdogan said in an address to the parliament that Ankara would retaliate “with determination” and take the “necessary steps by determining the time, place and method by itself.”

The Turkish Hurriyet Daily reported on the same day that Turkey had deployed a “large number of military vehicles to the Syrian border,” including “15 armored tanks, in addition to long-distance guns and other military vehicles.”

President Assad said on June 26 that Syria was in a “real situation of war.”

“When one is in a state of war, all our policies and capabilities must be used to secure victory,” Assad stated.

How's that Neo-Ottoman thing going?