WarSclerotic

Missiles In Turkey To Protect Damascus – The Philadelphia Bulletin.

By DAVID BEDEIN, Middle East Correspondent

JERUSALEM – Turkey has stationed a battery of Hawk anti-aircraft missiles on the border with Syria—this was reported by one of the major Turkish newspapers. The report indicates that the goal of stationing the missiles is to protect Turkey’s air space and prevent a possible attack by Israel on Syria or Iran through its territory.

The newspaper quotes an anonymous military source as saying that the missiles are intended to “protect Turkish air space, prevent other violations of the space, and defend against possible American-Israeli attacks on Iran and Syria.”

The newspaper explicitly mentions the Israeli bombing that was staged, according to foreign reports, against nuclear facilities in September 2007, in violation of Turkish aerial sovereignty.

The missile battery has been stationed in southern Turkey, near the village of Kale in the Iskandaron area, on the border with Syria. It should be noted that Turkey voiced dissatisfaction after the bombing of the nuclear facilities in Syria, saying that Israel should not have violated its air space for the operation and that Turkey was “taking steps to ensure that such cases would not recur in the future.”

About a week ago, the Turkish foreign minister said in a lecture at the University of Oxford in Britain that the Israeli-Turkish joint military maneuvers had been suspended until progress could be seen in the peace process with the Palestinians.

David Bedein can be reached at bedein@thebulletin.us.

This entry was posted on May 18, 2010 at 11:39 AM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.