Tag: Patriot

NATO missiles defend Turkey as debate rages over whether the West should intervene in Syria’s civil war

First Lieutenant Arnd de Ruiter commands a Dutch Patriot missile battery which defends southern Turkey from Scud missile attacks from Syria, where Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime is becoming more unpredictable and may have used chemical weapons against his own people.

Photograph by: Matthew Fisher/Postmedia News , Postmedia News

ADANA, Turkey — As bloody as the war inside Syria is, it would suddenly get much bigger and much more complicated politically if a Syrian tactical ballistic missile was to hit Adana, a city of more than two million Turks. Such an attack would immediately draw in the Turks and oblige every NATO country to contribute to Turkey’s defence.

Adana is 140 kilometres away from the Syrian border, as the Scud missile flies. Such rockets can carry chemical weapons which the United States and others suspect have recently been used against Syrians.

via NATO missiles defend Turkey as debate rages over whether the West should intervene in Syria’s civil war.

April 30, 2013
German defense minister vows to address troop ‘problems’ in Turkey

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere has admitted that conditions could be better for Bundeswehr troops stationed in Turkey. After a report that was critical of the situation, the minister promised improvements.

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere admitted he had noted that there were issues to address while on a visit to the site where German soldiers are deployed.

“Even though I tend to be shown the better side of how things are, I also perceived that there were certain problems,” de Maiziere told the German mass circulation daily Bild’s Saturday edition.

De Maiziere stressed that the armed forces first had to ensure that they could fulfil their mission. At present, he said, the most important aspect was to improve troop conditions.

Striking a diplomatic note, de Maiziere said that Turkey had gone to great lengths to provide good accommodation. He added that work on new quarters was being completed.

“When this new accommodation is ready, a lot of things will change when it comes to the issues that have been brought up,” he said.

DW.DE

Why were German soldiers ‘attacked’ in Turkey?

The recent attack on German soldiers by a group of Turkish nationalists in Iskenderun reveals the distrust some Turks feel toward the West, NATO and the US. It seems likely that more protests will follow. (24.01.2013)

De Maiziere made the comments after a report by Germany’s special commissioner for the armed forces, Hellmut Königshaus, which said that cooperation between the German and Turkish contingents was “perceived mainly as a problem.”

The report said that meals were monotonous and that usually there was only cold food. Toilets were described as “filthy,” most of them having no flush. The bodies of dead dogs, shot by the Turkish soldiers, had been left to decompose on the site.

‘No fraternization’

Soldiers’ post was being held back so that it did not reach them for days, or even weeks, the document went on. Soldiers had to change euros in privately owned currency exchange offices, at poor rates.

He said Turkish officials have reprimanded German soldiers for contact with their Turkish counterparts. One German female soldier was allegedly pushed by a Turkish general during a visit by de Maiziere to the base at Kahramanmaras. She later complained of bruising.

De Maiziere made the visit in February with his Dutch counterpart Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaer. Kahramanmaras lies some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Syrian border, with some 300 German troops manning NATO-deployed anti-missile batteries.

Germany, the Netherlands and the US are each operating two batteries to help protect Turkey from possible missiles launched in Syria.

rc / ccp (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

via German defense minister vows to address troop ‘problems’ in Turkey | News | DW.DE | 02.03.2013.

March 3, 2013
Turkey Patriots will cost the country $8.5mln a year

Askerlerin maaşını da Türkiye ödüyor, daha hala da gelmeye naz ediyorlar!

The Turkish media have quoted the Defence Ministry as saying that hosting the six Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries sent to southeastern Turkey by NATO will cost the country $8.5mln a year.

Two of the batteries are from the US, two, from Germany, and two, from the Netherlands. They are supposed to protect Turkey against an air attack from across the country’s border with Syria.

In a series of incidents last autumn, artillery shells fired from Syrian territory killed 5 people in a village in southeastern Turkey.

Voice of Russia, RIA

via Turkey Patriots will cost the country $8.5mln a year: Voice of Russia.

February 25, 2013
Merkel Visits Troops Operating Patriots in Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey February 24, 2013 (AP)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting German troops deployed to operate Patriot missile batteries in Turkey.

The Patriots were sent to Turkey, a NATO member, to protect it from spillover from Syria’s civil war.

AP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel , second right, talks to unidentified German soldiers in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, Sunday Feb. 24, 2013. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting German troops deployed to operate Patriot missile batteries in Turkey. The Patriots were sent to Turkey, a NATO member, to protect it from spillover from Syria’s civil war. Merkel’s two-day visit comes as Turkey grows increasingly frustrated over the slow progress in its bid for European Union membership. Before arriving Sunday, Merkel said she backs opening a new chapter in those stalled talks, despite being skeptical about Turkey’s accession. The chancellor’s first stop was Kahramanmaras, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Syrian border, where some 300 German troops are manning two out of six NATO-deployed anti-missile batteries. (AP Photo/dpa,Kay Nietfeld)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel , second right, talks to unidentified German soldiers in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, Sunday Feb. 24, 2013. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting German troops deployed to operate Patriot missile batteries in Turkey. The Patriots were sent to Turkey, a NATO member, to protect it from spillover from Syria’s civil war. Merkel’s two-day visit comes as Turkey grows increasingly frustrated over the slow progress in its bid for European Union membership. Before arriving Sunday, Merkel said she backs opening a new chapter in those stalled talks, despite being skeptical about Turkey’s accession. The chancellor’s first stop was Kahramanmaras, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Syrian border, where some 300 German troops are manning two out of six NATO-deployed anti-missile batteries. (AP Photo/dpa,Kay Nietfeld) Close

Merkel’s two-day visit comes as Turkey grows increasingly frustrated over the slow progress in its bid for European Union membership. Before arriving Sunday, Merkel said she backs opening a new chapter in those stalled talks, despite being skeptical about Turkey’s accession.

The chancellor’s first stop was Kahramanmaras, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Syrian border, where some 300 German troops are manning two out of six NATO-deployed anti-missile batteries.

Merkel will hold talks with Turkish leaders on Monday. She is accompanied by a delegation of businessmen.

via Merkel Visits Troops Operating Patriots in Turkey – ABC News.

February 25, 2013
Patriots’ Main Mission in Turkey: Protect NATO Radar

ANKARA — While the last of six Patriot anti-missile batteries are deployed in Turkey, ostensibly to protect Turkish airspace from a potential missile strike from neighboring Syria, some officials claim the primary purpose is to protect a radar that would track Iranian missile launches.

The fifth Patriot battery stationed in Turkey became operational Feb. 5 and deployment of the sixth is near completion. Officials and analysts here said the mini missile defense architecture actually provides the pretext to protect a U.S.-owned, NATO-assigned radar deployed since last year in Turkey in the event hostilities break out with Iran.

The five current Patriot batteries, belonging to the U.S., Germany and the Netherlands, are operating under NATO command and control. NATO says the missile defense system will protect roughly 3.5 million Turks in the country’s south and southeast. The mission is expected to last up to one year but NATO officials say this can be shortened or extended.

“It won’t be shortened but definitely extended,” said a missile defense expert here. “The Patriots are here to protect the NATO [missile defense] radar in Kurecik.”

A NATO official based in Brussels told Defense News that “the NATO deployment in Turkey is for defensive purposes. The system has been designed to de-escalate the tension in neighboring Syria and to deter and counter any possible missile threat to Turkish territory.”

Asked if the Patriots could be used against potential missile attacks from Iran, the official said, “I said ‘any missile threat,’ which should be clear enough to mean ‘any threat’ against Turkey. What matters is that this deployment will augment Turkey’s air defense system.”

Last year, Turkey, a NATO member, agreed to station the U.S. early warning missile detection and tracking radar system in Kurecik in the country’s southeast. Ankara has said that because of Turkish support for the armed opposition groups fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it fears Syria could attack Turkey with Scud and Scud-derivative missiles tipped with chemical warheads in a final, desperate act.

Assad, whose regime has been fighting rebels in a civil war that has already claimed 60,000 lives, has said he would never use chemical weapons against his people but would against foreign invaders.

A senior Turkish diplomat dealing with Syria said the threat of Syrian chemical weapons was not as serious as it sounds.

“It’s always a risk when you have a dictator as neighbor who possesses chemical weapons and missile capabilities to deliver these weapons. But, honestly, we are not sleep-deprived because of that. Assad may be a ruthless dictator but not an insane man,” the diplomat said.

Another Turkish diplomat dealing with security issues talked about “possibly a double mission.” He said: “The Patriots can be used against the threat of cross-border attacks from Syria, but their essential mission is to protect the NATO radar.”

And that brings Iran into the picture.

“The U.S. encouragement for the deployment of the Patriots in areas near the NATO radar in Turkey was to do more with providing protection for this radar complex against Iranian threat than with protecting Turkey from Syrian threat,” said a prominent defense analyst. “The U.S. naval assets in the Mediterranean are unable to protect Kurecik from potential Iranian missile threat. Kurecik’s protection is essential for the alliance.”

Kurecik’s mission is to provide U.S. naval assets in the Mediterranean with early warning and track information if Iran launched missiles at allies, including Israel, the analyst said.

Ankara officially has argued that the Kurecik radar is not aimed at any specific country.

But Moscow and Tehran, which have been staunch supporters of the Assad regime, have charged that deployment of NATO assets on Turkish soil are part of a wider plan by the U.S.-led alliance to neutralize Russian and Iranian missile capabilities. Russia has claimed that the Patriot deployment in Turkey is to protect the radar system in Kurecik.

A military official said the location of the Patriot batteries and the radar makes any connection between the two impossible. The batteries are deployed in Adana, Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep. But the defense analyst disagrees.

“Patriot is a road mobile system. It takes minutes to dismantle a battery, say in Kahramanmaras, and redeploy it closer to Kurecik in a matter of hours, and you can always do that quite discreetly, too,” he said. The distance between Kahramanmaras and Kurecik is about 200 kilometers.

via Patriots’ Main Mission in Turkey: Protect NATO Radar | Defense News | defensenews.com.

February 21, 2013
NATO missiles in Turkey shield Israel, a plot against Russia: Layos Szaszdi

An analyst says NATO missiles deployed in Turkey under the pretext of protecting Ankara against Syrian attacks are in actual fact aimed at Russia in pursuit of Israeli interests.

The comment comes as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance says it has made the first set of Patriot missiles operational on the Turkey-Syria border.

NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander for Europe Admiral James Stavridis has backed the deployment of Patriot missiles, saying it shows the alliance’s willingness to defend allies facing threats.

Six batteries of the US-made missiles, effective against aircraft and short-range missiles, will be deployed in the southern city of Adana and the southeastern cities of Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep.

The Syrian government has censured the plan, calling it another act of provocation by the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Layos Szaszdi, political commentator in Washington to further discuss the issue. What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Szaszdi, we see foreign-backed insurgents literally killing civilians in Syria, execution style. Why has the international community remained silent on this and why isn’t it doing anything about it?

Szaszdi: Well, because they do support the rebels. They want them to succeed because their ultimate goal is to topple the government in Damascus and this is a broad coalition that includes Western powers headed or led by the United States and including France, United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey of course– a major spring board for the rebels.

And that’s why the Patriot missiles are being deployed in the regions where they are near the city of Adana, near the city of Kahramanmara because probably those areas, certainly the city of Adana were the US base of Incirlik Base are entry ports; from where? Well, not entry ports but staging points where supplies are provided to the rebels in Syria.

So because of this broad alliance or coalition including Western powers and Middle Eastern powers, Persian Gulf, Arab States of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, probably Israel also is supporting the rebels so that’s why they don’t denounce the crimes committed by the rebels particularly the al-Nusra front which by the way the United States has declared a terrorist organization.

So there is this common goal that unites the Saudis, the Israelis, the Turks, the Germans and the Americans which bring down the government in Damascus as part of the information war, the propaganda war.

They are not going to mention or accuse the rebels of committing crimes. Everything that is going wrong; any war crime that is being committed in Syria they are always going to be blame it on the government in Damascus.

Press TV: As far as the NATO Patriot missiles are concerned, you spoke about them, how should one interpret these missiles and of course where does the international law fit in this?

Szaszdi: Well, Turkey is a NATO member, they do have the right to deploy, these NATO allies, the US, the Netherlands, Germany (have the right to) to deploy these Patriot missiles which are regarded as a defensive weapon in the Eastern borders of Turkey.

Now of course it’s my belief that where the missiles are being deployed near the city of Adana, Kahramanmaras were the Germans missiles, two batteries of Patriot missiles are being deployed, they are being deployed there because it’s a staging point from where the rebels obtained supplies, weapons, and volunteers.

So they are military targets, that’s why they are deploying missiles in case that Syria supposedly would like to retaliate launching attacks against those staging bases from where the rebels are being fed with weapons, volunteers, supplies, and etcetera but of course Syria is not going to provoke NATO to intervene.

I would say that these Patriot missiles are part of an extension of the European missile defense system which is actually aimed against Russia and Iran and the Russians know it.

They know that this is an excuse, the deployment of the Patriot missiles claiming that it is to protect Turkey against Syrian missile attack or air attack but in fact it’s aimed against Russia and its part of a broader missile defense system that does not just include NATO European missile defense System but also Japan presumably.

And in the case of the Patriot batteries being deployed in Eastern Turkey they could be connected to the more sophisticated missile defense system which is the Theater High Altitude Area Defense system also known by its acronym (THAAD) and there is a fire control [system and a] radar for that missile system which is the AN/TPY-2 and that radar is mobile so supposedly now it’s pointing Iran since its mobile it can turned pointing Russia.

Why Russia? Because I believe that these European missile defense system including the Patriot batteries can be linked to that fire control radar I just mentioned, could be used to defend Israel in case that Israel would attack Russia for instance move their intercontinental ballistic missile force including the Jericho-III ICBM that can reach Moscow and St. Petersburg.

And Israelis have been targeting the Soviet Union since the late eighties presumably they’re still targeting Russia due to its support to Syria, to Iran for instance though it is a friendly nation. So presumably the missiles can be used against Russia too.

VG/JR

via PressTV – NATO missiles in Turkey shield Israel, a plot against Russia: Layos Szaszdi.

February 3, 2013