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WEB TV
November 19, 2012
 
 
 
 
 
 

Turkey presses ahead with NATO missiles request

19 November 2012 / REUTERS WITH TODAY'S ZAMAN, BRUSSELS
Prospects for the deployment of NATO missiles on Turkey's border with Syria seemed closer on Monday as NATO expected Turkey to formally request Patriot missiles.

No official request was made when Today's Zaman went into print. Earlier in the day, German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Germany expected Turkey to make the request to NATO for Patriot deployment on Monday and would study such a request “with solidarity.”

“But if we have a deployment of Patriots on the Turkish border then this will happen with German soldiers,” he told reporters in Brussels, on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defense ministers.

Only the United States, the Netherlands and Germany have the appropriate Patriot missile system available.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that Turkey could count on “allied solidarity” but said that the missiles would be purely for defense and not for creating a no-fly zone in Syria.

In Damascus, opposition activists said that Assad's forces had started the heaviest bombardment in 40 days of air strikes and artillery shelling aimed at limiting gains by opposition forces operating on the edge of the capital. The civil war, which activists say has killed 38,000 people, has dragged Syria's neighbors and world powers into the conflict. Iran, Russia and China have stood by Assad as France, Britain and the United States have called for his overthrow.

Syrian mortar rounds have fallen in Turkey, Lebanon and Israel as opposition forces hug the borders looking for safety, and Turkey is in talks with NATO allies about how to shore up security on its 900-kilometer frontier.

Turkey's border has witnessed clashes not only between the opposition forces and Assad's forces but internal rebel disputes and, increasingly, fighting between the rebels and Kurdish separatist groups. A Reuters cameraman on the Turkish border said that hundreds of families had fled the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain and were gathering at the border gate, after clashes between opposition fighters and Kurdish separatists who are wary of both opposition forces and the government.

The Turkish army seemed to be on high alert, sending in military jeeps to patrol the border and stationing soldiers in recently dug trenches along the border. Turkey has responded in kind to Syrian mortar bombs that land on its soil.NATO has deployed Patriot surface-to-air missiles to Turkey twice before, once in 1991 and then in 2003, during both Gulf Wars. Those missiles were provided by the Netherlands.

Ankara has twice this year invoked Article 4 of the NATO charter which provides for consultations when a member state feels that its territorial integrity, political independence or security is under threat.

Alexander Von Rosenbach, armed forces analyst at IHS Jane's, said deploying Patriots to Turkey would be partly symbolic. “It's more of a commitment from NATO to say we are behind Turkey,” he said.

Manufacturer Raytheon says Patriot provides “a reliable and lethal capability to defeat advanced threats, including aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and UAVs (drones)…”
 
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