News / Brèves Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente NATO Expecting Turkish Request For Patriot Missile Batteries 20 November 2012 (LPAC)-Both German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen responded to news reported, yesterday, that Turkey was about to ask NATO for the deployment of Patriot anti-missile/anti-aircraft batteries close to the Syrian border, but no report of any such request has yet emerged, as of this writing. De Maiziere confirmed that Germany expected Turkey to make the request to NATO for Patriot deployment, yesterday, and would study such a request "with solidarity." "But if we have a deployment of Patriots on the Turkish border then this will happen with German soldiers," he said in Brussels, on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defense ministers. Rasmussen, attending the same EU meeting, said that NATO had not yet received a formal request from Turkey but added that if one was made, "we will consider that as a matter of urgency." A test firing of a Patriot missile (Photo: US government) "The situation on the Syria-Turkey border is of great concern," Rasmussen said. "We have all the plans ready to defend and protect Turkey if needed. The plans will be adjusted if necessary to ensure effective protection of Turkey." However, he ruled out using the Patriots to enforce a no fly zone over Syria. "The Patriot missiles would be a purely defensive measure to defend Turkey." He refused to comment on reports in the German media that 170 German troops would deploy with the Patriots, but added "Turkey can count on allied solidarity." The State Department’s Victoria Nuland said yesterday, as she has before on this matter, that "we don’t yet have a Turkish formal request," but "the defense of our ally Turkey is of paramount importance to us and we will look very seriously at any requests." The notion of deploying Patriot missiles to Turkey first surfaced on Nov. 2. An unnamed Turkish diplomat told the Turkish Hurriyet daily that Turkey had been working closely with NATO regarding the developments in Syria. "We are planning to make this request in the case of escalation of the scale of attacks against us," he said. The Turkish government went public with the idea on Nov. 7, that is, the after the U.S election. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted by local Turkish press as saying that planned to request the missiles as a defensive measure against incoming munitions from Syria. Milliyet, however, reported that Turkey had agreed with the U.S. to use the Patriots in an offensive mode, in both Turkey and Jordan, to create safe zones in Syria. Milliyet added that a plan for a limited no-fly zone had been circulating in Washington for weeks, and had won advocates in the State Department. Of course, there would be no other reason to deploy Patriot systems to Turkey, as it is useless against the artillery and mortar shells that have been landing on the Turkish side of the border, and the Syrian Air Force, however much of it is still operational, will not be attacking Turkey. If Turkey makes the request, and NATO says "yes" to the deployment, as seems likely, it’ll be another step towards World War III.