Patriot missiles could be deployed in Turkey in weeks: NATO spokeswoman

On November 21, Turkey formally asked its NATO partners to deploy the surface-to-air Patriot missiles to defend its border with Syria. In response, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance would consider the Turkish request “without delay.”

"I would expect that if the decision is taken it could take several weeks to deploy, rather than months," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in Brussels on Friday.

A joint Turkish-NATO team is assessing the best sites to station the surface-to-air missiles that Ankara says are needed to counter what it views as potential military threats from Syria.

On November 23, Damascus censured Ankara’s plan to deploy the Patriot missiles along the Syrian border, calling it another act of provocation by the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"Syria holds Erdogan responsible for the militarization of the situation at the border between Syria and Turkey, and the increase of tension," an official said on Syrian state television.

On November 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Turkish move could spark a regional conflagration, adding that any deployment of Patriot missiles by Turkey could tempt Ankara to use the weapons and spark a "very serious armed conflict" involving NATO.

"I understand that no one has any intention to see NATO get sucked into the Syrian crisis," Lavrov stated, adding that "the more arms are being accumulated, the greater the risk that they will be used.”

    The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed.


The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the insurgents are foreign nationals.