Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan said his country will take “necessary steps’ in response to Syria shooting down a Turkish air force jet which crashed into the Mediterranean . . . the jet – an unarmed F-4 Phantom – was shot down yesterday reportedly when it entered Syrian airspace . . . the plane reportedly was conducting a reconnaissance mission . . . Prime Minister Erdogan said Turkey would respond “either in the diplomatic field or give other type of response: . . . Syrian forces are assisting Turkey in searching for the jet’s two pilots . . . it is unclear whether Syria has apologized for the incident although Turkish officials have signaled they expect one . . . the downing of the Turkish jet will raise tensions between the two states that are already poor due to Turkey allowing Syrian opposition groups to operate out of its territory and cross-border fire incidents . . . cooperation between the two countries in searching for the jet’s pilots and an apology by Syria could limit the diplomatic damage from this incident . . . no matter how angry Turkey is over the downed jet, it is still unlikely to respond with military force . . . it is telling that Turkey did not break diplomatic relations  with Syria over this incident.