U.S. radar system to be installed in Kurdish city
U.S. radar system to be installed in Kurdish city
Turkey said Friday it would host an early-warning radar system on its territory as part of NATO’s missile defense program, ending its months-old quandary on whether to join the project.
According to a report by Hurriyet Daily news Turkish high-ranking military officer will be posted to the NATO’s anti-ballistic team to be stationed in Germany.
It is reported that the radar system could be stationed at a military installation either in Adana or Malatya. The system according to the Pentagon, will be operational by the end of 2011.
In a written statement released on Friday Foreign Ministry spokesman Selçuk Ünal stated: “It is anticipated that the early-warning radar system allocated by the United States to NATO will be deployed in our country.”
Last year in Lisbon NATO approved a new strategic concept which calls for the development of an anti-ballistic defense system in response to growing threats from Iran and North Korea.
Turkey approved the concept only after receiving a series of guarantees among which was the need for the allies not to single out Iran as the sole threat against NATO.
According to an article by the Wall Street Journal Turkey had two concerns regarding the new radar project.
The first was that although the radar would be deployed at a location in Turkey, a small piece of its territory in the east of the country close to Iran would not be covered by the shield. Turkey asked for the deployment of anti-ballistic Patriot missiles in this region to fully secure its territory.
The second concern, which took a different meaning when analyzing event of the last 24 hours, was that data collected at the radar site could be shared real-time with Israel.
According to the Wall Street Journal the U.S. officials told Turkish counterparts that “the U.S. has a ‘separate and robust’ missile defense relationship with Israel, where the U.S. based high-powered X-Band radar in 2008 to bolster Israel’s missile defenses.”
But it also added that data from any U.S. radars around the world could be fused with other data to maximize the effectiveness of its missile defenses.
Considering that the cold relations between Turkey and Israel have been frozen since yesterday, after the decision by Turkey to expel the Israeli ambassador over Israel’s failure to apologize for killing nine Turks in a raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship last year.
According to a report by Hurriyet Daily news Turkish high-ranking military officer will be posted to the NATO’s anti-ballistic team to be stationed in Germany.
It is reported that the radar system could be stationed at a military installation either in Adana or Malatya. The system according to the Pentagon, will be operational by the end of 2011.
In a written statement released on Friday Foreign Ministry spokesman Selçuk Ünal stated: “It is anticipated that the early-warning radar system allocated by the United States to NATO will be deployed in our country.”
Last year in Lisbon NATO approved a new strategic concept which calls for the development of an anti-ballistic defense system in response to growing threats from Iran and North Korea.
Turkey approved the concept only after receiving a series of guarantees among which was the need for the allies not to single out Iran as the sole threat against NATO.
According to an article by the Wall Street Journal Turkey had two concerns regarding the new radar project.
The first was that although the radar would be deployed at a location in Turkey, a small piece of its territory in the east of the country close to Iran would not be covered by the shield. Turkey asked for the deployment of anti-ballistic Patriot missiles in this region to fully secure its territory.
The second concern, which took a different meaning when analyzing event of the last 24 hours, was that data collected at the radar site could be shared real-time with Israel.
According to the Wall Street Journal the U.S. officials told Turkish counterparts that “the U.S. has a ‘separate and robust’ missile defense relationship with Israel, where the U.S. based high-powered X-Band radar in 2008 to bolster Israel’s missile defenses.”
But it also added that data from any U.S. radars around the world could be fused with other data to maximize the effectiveness of its missile defenses.
Considering that the cold relations between Turkey and Israel have been frozen since yesterday, after the decision by Turkey to expel the Israeli ambassador over Israel’s failure to apologize for killing nine Turks in a raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship last year.
