Turkey has no place for American radar

© Collage: “The Voice of Russia”

In Turkey a wave of protests is rising against the elements of the NATO missile defense system to be stationed there.

Turkish political activists and the public at large as well as the mass media are actively discussing the protest action organized by a group of representatives from Turkey’s opposition Republican People’s Party led by the party deputy head Emine Ulker Tarhan. The parliamentarians arrived at the Kurecik village where the main radar of the NATO missile defense system is stationed and met with the local citizens. The place is located 550 km from the Iranian border and 150 km from the border with Syria. During the protest meeting Emine Tarhan made the following statement:

«We are against the war. The radar you see here for us is a symbol of war. And as mothers we do not want to see symbols of war from other countries on our territory. There is no place for them on the Turkish territory».

The citizens of the Kurecik village and seven other surrounding villages supported the parliamentarian and spoke against the missile defense radar’s location in their neighborhood.

The Kepez village headman Kemal Koroglu reminded other participants that local population already had negative experience with such neighbors. In the 1960s NATO radar aimed against the Soviet Union was stationed in that very district. Back then a rise in cancer occurrence among local population was registered. And the present radar has a lot more powerful. According to the popular Turkish Haber Turk newspaper, there is a real threat of radiation poisoning. “The 1960s were years of the Cold War, are we really going back to that period of confrontation?” – says a frequently cited village teacher Huseyin Nazlyer.

A well-known Turkish political analyst Turgay Turker gave his assessment of the situation with the American radar in an exclusive interview to the Voice of Russia. He pointed out the foreign policy aspect of its location on the Turkish territory. «It is well known that the Government announced the policy of «zero problems with the neighbors». But as everybody is convinced, the radar’s location in Turkey is primarily targeted against our neighbor Iran, although the signed documents do not mention that. How can our relations with Iran develop after that? How can we talk about «zero problems» taking into account the tough statements against Turkey already made by Iranian top officials», said Turgay Turker.

The Turkish political analyst believes that the Russian factor is also important. «Russia, our strategic partner, also firmly spoke against the NATO missile defense system. Moscow is ready to locate its modern missile systems in the south of the country in order to be able to destroy the elements of the European missile defense. In means that the US radar in Kurecik can become the target of the Russian missiles», stressed Turgay Turker.

In that event does Ankara really need the radar that pushes Turkey into a severe standoff with its neighbors and profitable partners such as Russia and Iran? Ordinary Turkish citizens as well as the parliamentarians of the country say today that «there is no place for the American radar on Turkish land. We don’t want the return of the Cold War».

via Turkey has no place for American radar: Voice of Russia.