Within the next few hours, NATO will provide Ankara with a complete "air defense package" that will include AWACS systems, armed fighters, missiles Patriot and a greater naval presence. Soon the Organization will establish ways, times of execution and appurtenances.
Every NATO country, including Italy, will have to play its part in defending the Turkish ally. The decision was made on 18 last December, but in the next few hours we will know how to execute it.
Since last October, i Patriot Americans in Turkey have been removed from the US for maintenance. Missile systems that the Pentagon would not have redirected, giving a mandate to NATO to defend Turkish airspace. The only countries excluded from the shift will be Germany and the Netherlands, both at the end of the military assistance mandate.
The missile batteries had been deployed in the province of Kahramanmaras, in southern Turkey, 100 kilometers north of the border with Syria, at the beginning of the 2013. The redeployment became necessary after Ankara asked the Alliance for more air protection and assistance.
Currently Turkish airspace is defended under NATO aegis by missiles Patriot provided by Spain.
Soon we will know the involvement of all the other countries of the Alliance, including Italy.
(photo: US Army)
