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US Patriot Missile Batteries Completely Removed From Turkey

15.10.2015 00:07

The United States Patriot missile batteries that had been deployed in Turkey's Gaziantep province as part of a NATO mission to enhance Turkey's air defense against a possible threat from the Syrian regime were completely removed from Turkey as of Tuesday.Despite Turkey's request to NATO to keep the Patriot.

The United States Patriot missile batteries that had been deployed in Turkey's Gaziantep province as part of a NATO mission to enhance Turkey's air defense against a possible threat from the Syrian regime were completely removed from Turkey as of Tuesday.
Despite Turkey's request to NATO to keep the Patriot missile batteries in Turkey especially after Russian incursions into Turkish airspace recently, the US began withdrawing its two Patriot missile batteries from Turkey on Friday.
Turkey's effort to downplay any disagreement with its long-time ally in the eyes of the public was evident when the US decision was announced in the form of a “joint statement” by the Turkish government and the US government in late August this year. The US officials say they have other means to protect Turkey's air defense when it's necessary via their military ships in the region.
In August, Germany had also announced its decision to withdraw Patriots in Kahramanmaraş province by the end of this year, citing the diminished threat of the Bashar al-Assad regime to Turkey.
Turkey had asked NATO's help after a mortar bomb fired from Syria killed five Turkish civilians in the town of Akçakale on the Syrian border in 2012. Following Turkey's request, NATO foreign ministers agreed to send Patriots to Turkey in December 2012. In response, the United States, the Netherlands and Germany sent Patriot missile batteries that were stationed in the provinces of Gaziantep, Adana and Kahramanmaraş, respectively, in early 2013. The Dutch Patriots were replaced by Spanish units earlier this year on Jan. 26, after the Netherlands stressed that it was too costly to maintain the troops to operate the Patriots in Turkey.
Spain's Defense Minister Pedro Morenes said last week that although he was concerned by Russia's incursion into Turkish airspace, his nation's Patriots were deployed to defend "against attacks with missiles coming from Syria."
Having lacked a genuine air defense system, Turkey solely relies on NATO's cover against any missile threat in its vicinity and several times over the course of the past two decades, Ankara has appealed to the alliance to deploy Patriots on its soil, first against Saddam Hussein's Iraq and then Assad's Syria.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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