A NATO reconnaissance team is expected to survey the Turkish-Syrian border Tuesday to prepare for the possible deployment of Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries. Turkey has turned against its former ally, asking its fellow NATO members last week for the missiles to bolster its air defenses because of several Turkish deaths blamed on Syrian forces.
A delegation of Turkish and NATO officials is scheduled to begin a site survey Tuesday to determine where to deploy the batteries, the Turkish military said. “The deployment of the Air and Missile Defense System is a precaution for defensive purposes for possible air and missile threats from Syria, and is not for the establishment of a no-fly zone or for offensive maneuvers,” according to a Turkish military statement.
“The area of deployment for the Air and Missile Defense System, the quantity of the system, the number of foreign personnel that will come in to our country and the time of the deployment will be determined after the site survey.” The fact that Syrian warplanes and helicopters have bombed targets within a few hundred meters of Turkey at least three times in the past month raises the question of whether the NATO military alliance could be sucked into the grinding Syrian civil war.
Tensions exploded between Syria and Turkey last summer, when Syrian anti-aircraft fire brought down a Turkish military reconnaissance jet, killing its two crew members.
Turkey announced it was changing its rules of engagement with Syria. In October, the Turkish government won authorization in parliament for possible cross-border military incursions into Syria after Syrian mortar fire killed five civilians in the Turkish border town of Akcakale.
