NATO Rotates Interceptor Missiles In Turkey

Hurriyet Daily News
January 16, 2015

NATO Patriot air defense missiles arrive in Turkey

Naval ships carrying Patriot air defense missiles, a result of Turkey’s request for NATO assistance, arrived at the İskenderun port on Jan 9. DHA Photo

Defense missiles from Spain have arrived in the southern Turkish province of Hatay’s İskenderun port, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Naval ships carrying Patriot air defense missiles, a result of Turkey’s request for NATO assistance, arrived at the port on Jan. 9, officials stated.

The authorities have begun to unload the missiles from the military ships.

…The batteries will be deployed at the İncirlik 10th Tanker Base Command in the southern province of Adana.

In September, Spain decided to send Patriot air defense missiles to Turkey to replace withdrawing units from the Netherlands as part of NATO assistance. The Dutch will end their participation at the end of January.

The U.S., Germany and the Netherlands each sent two Patriot batteries in 2012 to bolster Turkish air defenseThe U.S. and German contingents will continue to remain in Turkey….

Germany’s Cabinet on Jan. 7 agreed to keep two German Patriot missile batteries in southern Turkey for another year, Reuters reported.

The mandate, which needs approval from the German Parliament, allows a maximum of 400 German soldiers to serve in NATO-member Turkey until January 2016.

The civil war in Syria is about to enter its fifth year, with unrest inside the country having started in March 2011 as an extension of the Arab Spring that kicked off in Tunisia before rapidly spreading to the whole region.

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