Spain To Replace Netherlands In Turkey Patriot Missile Deployment

Spain will send a Patriot anti-ballistic missile battery to Turkey's southern border with Syria as part of a NATO initiative, Defense Minister Pedro Morenes said on Wednesday, replacing the Netherlands' contribution to the deployment.

The Netherlands, Germany and the United States had each sent two Patriot missile batteries and soldiers to operate them in early 2013, after Turkey, a NATO ally, called for aid to defend itself against attacks from Syria on its southern border.

"We will collaborate ... with a similar number of units to Germany and the United States," Morenes said in an address to a parliamentary defense commission.

Spain, which has not been a major participant in these types of international initiatives in recent years, will also send 130 soldiers to operate the missiles, Morenes said.

The alliance has deployed Patriot surface-to-air missiles to Turkey twice before, once in 1991 and later in 2003, during both Gulf Wars. The missiles were provided by the Netherlands.

In August the Netherlands announced that it would withdraw its Patriot missile batteries and the Dutch soldiers operating them in the province of Adana at the end of January 2015.

A Dutch Ministry of Defense official said in August that the Netherlands no longer had the resources to keep the Patriot batteries deployed in Adana, even though the threat from Syria persists.

She stated the batteries had been deployed 24/7 for nearly two years and that the Netherlands could no longer maintain them. “We've announced this now so that NATO can make a decision on how to continue,” she said.

Turkey has Patriot missiles stationed in the southern provinces of Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş and Adana. The batteries have been in these provinces since December 2012.

The Patriots' deployment was scheduled to end after one year. Turkey sent a letter requesting the extension of the Patriot batteries' deployment to areas along the Syrian border in December 2013, and all three countries that originally sent the batteries and troops confirmed their commitment for another year.

Spain was among the countries that sent troops at the start of the 2003 Iraq war, though they were pulled out the following year after a change in government.

The country has since shied away from taking part in military interventions. Morenes said Spain was still debating whether it might have a role in an international coalition to root out Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in Iraq and Syria, which is being put together and led by the US.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)